Cold reception

Russian Railways renewed discounts for international and domestic rail traffic in Russia. The holding company provided the transportation statistics on cargoes in reefer containers and data on the current tariff solutions. 

According to Irina Azhikina, the Deputy Head of the Center of Corporate Transport Service (CFTS) - a branch of Russian Railways, in 2023 import-export business has been provided with 27 tariff solutions. Discounts apply to the transportation of goods in refrigerated and universal containers, oil and steel cargoes, mineral fertilizers and light vehicles. 

The transportation cost in Russia is calculated according to price-list #10-01 “Tariffs for cargo transportation and infrastructure services provided by Russian railways” (approved in 2003). Besides, to attract new freight traffic Russian Railways has introduced a downward adjustment in the discount system for certain destinations. 

“In the 2 months of 2023, 13 shippers redeemed discounts for cargo transportation in reefer containers in domestic, export and import traffic; the total volume of such transport was almost 2 thousand TEU (20-foot equivalent container – Editor’s note) or 28 thousand tons. As for the international traffic (export) these discounts were applied to 12 TEU or 101 tons’ worth of freight”, - the CFTS said.

“At present, warehouses and storage facilities in Russia are not suitable for container storage, so companies will still have to use refrigerated cars”, Vitaly Momot, president of transport forwarding company Tascor-21, explained to Gudok. 

Russian Railways has set a discount downward adjustment of 0.5 (50%) on imports of fruit and vegetable goods from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for the whole of 2023. This benefit shall be granted on condition that the holding company is exempted from any rental payment for using the rolling stock (which is the property of these two states) involved in refrigerator container carriage.

A downward adjustment of 0.796, which equals a discount of 20.4% is applied to export freight of the second and third tariff classes cargo in reefer containers. The tariff applies to Zabaikalsk and Naushki border stations when passing to the further border crossing Zamyn-Uud - Erlyan (the border of Mongolia and China), as well as to Russian-Kazakh border transfer stations when passing to the further border crossing Dostyk - Alashankou and Altynkol - Khorgos. 

The discounts continue to apply to import transportation in reefer cars and reefer freight of the second and third tariff classes cargo from Astara station (20.4%) and Khachmas station (50%) of Azerbaijan Railways via Samur border station of North-Caucasian Railways to Selyatino station of Moscow Railways. 

Vitaliy Momot noted that his company would transport 2-3% of fish from the Far East in refrigerated containers whereas now the number of fish products freighted this way has increased up to 80%. Besides, in recent years the number of refrigerated containers has increased to 7-8 thousand, he concluded.

Alexander Solyanik