OREANDA-NEWS. October 10, 2011. The Board of Russian Railways has approved a Concept for the Integrated Development of the Container Business at the Russian Railways Holding Company, reported the press-centre of RZD.

The development and adoption of this document were due to the fact that over the next 10 years, the global market for container transportation will maintain high growth rates. The main increase in container shipments will come from the rising levels of trade between the countries of the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, with much of this traffic passing through the CIS countries providing that the necessary technological, regulatory, legal and tariff conditions are put in place.
The Concept for the Integrated Development of the Container Business is intended to increase the level of containerisation in freight shipments on Russia’s railways and, in particular, to increase Russia’s share of transit traffic, which at the moment does not reflect the advantageous position the country enjoys due to the international transit corridors which pass through its territory.

The document stresses in particular the need to increase the competitiveness of the container business and lays out the task of creating and gradually implementing a system of individual and group container shipments with the concentration of freight traffic flows between major container terminals and hubs. This will increase the speed of individual and group container shipments en route from the current level of 200-400 km/day to 500-700 km/day.

It is also planned to optimise the cost structure for container shipments over small and medium-range distances by switching to regular container trains and the concentration of containers. This will lead to the ability to compete with road transport over distances from 500 to 2000 km. shipping services.

The Concept proposes expanding the range of available services, including "door-to-door delivery, tracking of container positions and movements in real-time and firm guaranteed container delivery times.

To meet the challenges of attracting transit traffic and of further developing the international transport corridors passing through Russia, primarily in the East – West direction, it is planned to establish a major international logistics operator which will handle transit shipments. This logistics operator will be owned by a wide range of partners.

It is also planned to set competitive through tariff rates, cooperate closely with European and Chinese intermodal operators and with railway administrations under the auspices of the International Union of Railways (UIC).

By implementing the Concept, shippers will be able to secure expedited delivery of a wide range of products suitable for container shipment using modern intermodal technologies, while freight forwarders and container operators will see increased demand for their services. Foreign partners will also benefit by being able to diversify the ways they can deliver goods using Russia’s transportation system.

Overall, the Concept will allow Russia’s economy to approach the level of the most developed countries in the amount of containerised trade flows and the volume of transit container shipments of non-commodity exports with high added value.