From 5 March 2023, Russian Railways limited the shipments of cargo bound for the Far East ports of Posit and Vanino. This measure is undertaken to let the ports cope with the railway cars delivering coal. Russian Railways say it caused the loss of 221 thousand tonnes, according to the company’s Telegram channel.
“We ask our clients and partners to show more responsibility when organizing cargo transportation on bottleneck routes. The fulfillment obligations on export of coal products is under a special control of the company's management. Russian Railways itself implements all the agreements in full and it is ready to transport the declared volumes. Unfortunately, we face the cases of irrational logistics and failures in the activities of other players,” read sthe statement.
According to Russian Railways, similar situation is in the ports of Temryuk, Kavkaz and Novorossiysk, hence the restrictions introduced there as well. Underloading is estimated at 193 thousand tonnes.
“Another problem is the inconsistency of some coal companies’ actions. Instead of the previously announced export volumes they started supplying their products to the domestic consumers,” Russian Railways says. In particular, the export of coal from Khakassia for export in the eastern direction is constrained by the increased volumes of its own domestic transportation: local coal companies have won tenders for the supply of fuel to enterprises in Buryatia. “According to the rules, such cargo is given a higher priority, therefore it makes the bulk of the volumes while Buryatia coal goes abroad en masse by the Trans-Siberian Railway east of Ulan-Ude,” says Russian Railways.
The company emphasized that it cannot use the capacity of BAM in full due to the idle time of locomotives in depots of service companies, hence “the annoying disruptions of supplies”.
“The Eastern Polygon is not infinite. With the current surge of demand in transportation and a shortage of facilities, it will be almost impossible to offset everything that is not loaded now,” summarized the company.