OREANDA-NEWS. The Novosibirsk Branch of JSC Freight One ("Freight One" or "the Company") has held a meeting on cooperation with the Company's shippers and partners in the Kuzbass region. The event was attended by officials of regional authorities, executives of the West-Siberian Railway (Russian Railways division), heads of regional enterprises, and senior executives of the Moscow Office and the Novosibirsk Branch of Freight One.

Alexander Sapronov, Chief Operating Officer of Freight One, pointed out that despite the unfavorable market conditions the Company has secured its share of the Russian freight rail market with over 20 percent of the total national freight railway volume. Company's major partners are the largest Russian businesses in mining, coal, oil, cement, and other sectors. Alexander Sapronov emphasized the key role of shippers in railway transportation industry.

"We are doing our best to ensure that working with Freight One is comfortable for our clients. We provide rolling stock on a targeted basis, we are developing a service package and new service products, and we are expanding our market presence. All these initiatives are aimed at serving the interests of the cargo owners, and streamlining their relations with Freight One," - said the Executive Director.

Alexander Sapronov also guided the audience to the service component of Freight One's client management, which today is the key for the Company's business development.

"Our service range contains over 15 products, including transportation, technology, finance, forwarding, etc. In particular, technology products help to adapt client needs to the railway transportation technology. Freight One refers such issues directly to JSC Russian Railways. Financial products include, for example, tariff payment or deferral of payment for our partners. Information products help clients track railcars en route and receive timely information on the process of transportation, loading and unloading. In addition, Freight One offers unique products otherwise unavailable in the market, such as industrial logistics, designed to help large manufacturing enterprises optimize costs of internal logistics," said Alexander Sapronov.

Yevgeny Dolzhenko, Novosibirsk Branch Director, informed the audience of the Branch results, noting that in Q3 coal volumes in Kuzbass for transportation to the Far Eastern ports decreased 15% as compared to Q1 and Q2 results. The downturn is due to the excess of coal supplies in the East and rearrangement of loading towards the West, resulting in increased coal volumes loaded for transportation to the ports of Murmansk, Ust-Luga and Tuapse. Yevgeniy Dolzenko pointed out this development is not company-specific, but rather a current market trend affecting all the players.

Yevgeny Dolzhenko further reported that in 2013 the Novosibirsk Branch transported 61 million tonnes of goods, with coal reaching 73 percent of the total volume. The branch takes up 22 percent of the total volume of goods loaded at the West-Siberian Railway.

"In general, the services offered by Freight One to its shippers together with competitive price are the basic conditions of the client base expansion. The Company is actively setting up client feedback links. Last year we launched a call center for businesses and enterprises looking for railway transportation options. We plan to make the process much more active and substantial to make the clients satisfied on the matters they raise before the operator," emphasized Yevgeniy Dolzenko.