Mining and smelting cargoes’ transportation amid sanctions at Moscow conference

The 13th annual conference «Rail deliveries of mining and smelting cargoes» organized by MAXConference took place in Moscow on September 29-30.

The urgent problems of the industry provoked by the difficult geopolitical situation, sanctions bans and restrictions on the sale of mining and smelting products to European countries, as well as high rates on sea and rail freight and the emerging infrastructure problems of Russian Railways were at the epicenter of discussions and speeches at the event.

The speakers noted that the export potential of domestic metallurgy remains, but it is not easy to fully realize it due to high competition, in particular, with steel suppliers from China and India. As a result of the sanctions imposed on Russia, which affected sales in the EU, shippers switched to Asian markets, rebuilding their logistics.

The reversal of iron ore raw materials and metals’ transportation towards Asia intensified competition with coal for the capacity of Russia’s Eastern Landfill. According to coal companies, in order to restore the volume of transportation to the Asia-Pacific countries, Russian Railways needs to return the coefficient to the range, or provide discounts for the transportation of coal to the ports of Russia’s Far East.

Although the demand for eastbound transportation is now outpacing the speed of development of the railway infrastructure, Russian Railways is able to implement a number of measures which allow using technological reserves and accepting volumes of cargo that exceed the standard carrying capacity for departure. In addition, the modernization of the Baikal Amur Railways and Transsib continues. The export plans of domestic metallurgists highly depend on this, the participants stated.

The experts were unanimous in their opinion that now more than ever it is necessary to have a joint partnership of all players in the railway transportation of mining and smelting cargoes in a bid to solve the problem of capacity, namely: routing, introduction of innovative wagons, planning, prioritization of transportation. «In order not to create traffic jams at the approaches to ports, we need discounts on less busy routes, modern automated means and technologies: somewhere switching to other modes of transport, somewhere using an impersonal fleet; as well as state subsidies for transportation,» commented a representative of one of the participating companies of the conference.

The development of port infrastructure and sea transportation of mining and metallurgical cargoes were in the focus of the second day of the event. A representative of the North Caucasus Railway spoke about the capacity of the railway infrastructure at the access to the ports of the Azov-Black Sea basin. The analysis of the development of the port infrastructure was presented by experts of Morstroytechnology. Rosmorport. FESCO, Severstal and OTEKO managers spoke about the possibilities of rail transportation in the direction of seaports.

Traditionally, the final topic of the conference was dedicated to a discussion about the problems of car builders. The position of the leading factories was presented by the largest manufacturers of railcars: RM Rail and UralVagonZavod-Trans. All the speakers spoke about the difficulties associated with the production of components, about new specialized wagons, about the requirements for the repair and operation of rolling stock and its quality: the Management of the wagon Economy of the Central Directorate of Infrastructure of JSC "Russian Railways, EVRAZ TC and EVRAZ, the NPK, OVK, the First Industrial Operator.

We hope that next year we will be able to meet again and continue our conversation about how the industry has gone through difficult times, what prospects it has for development and what to do so that the «black swans do not fly here anymore».