Rail freight traffic with China could double in coming decade

Russian Railways president Vladimir Yakunin expects a big jump in rail freight traffic in the coming decade, reported SKRIN Newswire.

"Over the coming decade, the volume of direct rail freight with China could increase by 50-100 percent," he said.

Yakunin said that railway transport accounts for a substantial share of external trade freight between Russia and China. During the first 10 months of 2010, the volume of rail freight between the countries increased by 33 percent to reach 53 million tonnes.

The vast majority (93.9 percent) of cargo comprises Russian oil, timber, chemical, and mineral fertilizer exports, but in 2010, with the greater volume of Chinese machine and technical goods deliveries, imports also started to gradually increase.

"Russian Railways paying close attention to improving transport provision and developing rail and terminal-logistic infrastructure on the main freight routes between Russia and China," Yakunin said.

In line with the goals set by the Russian government, Russian Railways is developing rail infrastructure in regions of Siberia and Russia’s Far East. During last year alone, more than US$383 million were spent on developing rail infrastructure in the Far East regions, and this year, the company plans to invest another $415 million.

During 2010, the volume of rail freight in heavy goods containers between Russia and China is expected to increase considerably by around 50 percent, along with transit freight between China and EU states.

As part of efforts to develop cooperation in rail container freight, Russian Railways has reached agreements with Chinese and German partners on creating a joint venture for container transport. The Russian Railways subsidiary TransContainer will represent Russia in the joint venture.

Under the programme for cooperation between regions of Russia’s Far East and East Siberia and China’s northwest provinces up to 2018, Russian Railways will be taking part in a project to create a new border crossing between Russia and China.

The project involves the creation of a rail line from Leninsk to the Chinese border, along with the construction of a railway bridge from Nizhneleninskoye to Tongjiang across the Amur River, and the reconstruction of the existing Birobidzhan-Leninsk line.

The project is being carried out on the basis of a public-private partnership, and is directly linked to the creation of an ore mining and smelting cluster in the Amur area.

Under the project, the parties plan to deliver around 20 million tonnes of iron ore and other commodities to China annually by 2020.

One of the potential areas for expanding cooperation is container freight from northwest Chinese provinces with no direct access to the coast via Russian Far East ports, for subsequent delivery to south China, Japan, South Korea, and other countries.
(Source:www.cargonewsasia.com)