Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Gordeyev estimated Russia's need for grain exports in the current agricultural year (July 2018 - June 2019) to 40M tons. The Deputy Prime Minister of Russia noted that such a volume is necessary so that "we maintain calm in the domestic market and have the right balance of production, residues and consumption."
At the same time, on Monday, January 14, Transneft President Nikolai Tokarev told reporters that the company is in talks with banking and other interested companies on the creation of a single grain operator in southern Russia based on the Novorossiysk Sea Trade Port. Earlier, Tokarev clarified that several options were being considered - the creation of a joint venture or a legally independent company that would be separated from the port and sold.
The director general of InfraNews Research Agency, transport expert Alexei Bezborodov believes that the monopolization of the grain transshipment market in the case of creating a single grain export operator in southern Russia may lead to a decrease in export volumes. "Today the grain market is free, the producers have a choice where and at what price to ship. If the grain producers are not satisfied with the monopoly conditions, they will simply be taken out through another point, this will entail a reorientation of cargo traffic and temporary losses. We need to understand that grain is not hydrocarbons, it grows everywhere. And as soon as the disruptions begin, Egypt or someone else will buy American, French, Italian wheat. That is, the exports flow from Russia will decrease," Bezborodov told to RIA Novosti. "This is the biggest problem. Today, exports are free. Let it remain so, because it is a powerful stimulus to growth," he concluded.
Meanwhile, the downtime problem on the Russian Railways has again become aggravated: the freight car turnover reached 15 days against the background of an increase in the rates of operators. Russian Railways is trying to solve the problem by proposing to toughen the transportation conditions: to sharply raise fines for those who take the road or detain the cars under unloading and loading, and the car fleet, which costs longer than a week, must be used forcibly through electronic trading. Experts call the Russian Railways ideas 'radical', but recognize that the situation within half a year may become critical.
Russian Railways wants to discuss all these ideas by the end of January. "We sent proposals to the Union of Railway Transport Operators to discuss and develop a joint decision, before that we see no point in commenting," Russian Railways explained.
Based on zol.ru.
