| Have to say that words said by government authorities in 2014 “ What can be transported by water shall be moved by water” were understood by Ministry of transport literally and road authorities are building a set of measures to avoid moving of OOG cargoes by trucks. All ports were fitted with weights, many mobile control points are patrolling federal and local roads. Permissions are thoroughly checked and do not allow waivers that took place before.
That is why “white” permissions for OOG cargoes came to extraordinary amount. Say “white” permission for a boiler (10758 х 4516 х 5085 mm and weight 89 307 kg) will cost:
Trucking costs – 4 320 000 rub = abt 66 400 USD
Reimbursement of damage to roads 1 020 233,05 rub = abt 15 900 USD
“white” permissions and special projects 8 000 000 rub= abt 123 070 USD
It is illogical when duties in logistics are twice over transport expeces.
What we have as an option?
Railway transport as first option. Important issues are that railway cars carrying 80 mts+ are very rare and need to be pre-booked 2-3 months ahead. There are only 4 transports with SWL 400 mts+ which are always occupied on most important government projects. Another issue – many new building sights do not have railway connection yet and trucking can’t be avoided.
One may say – we can use water transport. Yes, it’s a good idea. And here we face infrastructure problem again. Most of river ports are fitted for bulk cargoes with a cranes of SWL max 45-60 tons.
Trucking from ports in many times is limited by pipelines and electricity lines. Many ports are surrounded by the city or manufacture buildings. Since cargo can’t be moved via ports one needs to use RORO berths and employ roro barges. Infrastructure expenses for building roro berths vary from 75.000 usd to 150.000 usd.
My personal feeling is that changing in rules for moving of OOG and especially heavy cargoes in Russia and CIS is a good intention that will drive technology and will have positive impact on ecology. Pity to say that we need complex of measures: investment in infrastructure both with government policy. Now as a matter of fact all the infrastructure expenses will fall on final consumer.
On this stage we see potential for reducing costs in unitizing several shippers in one lot and hiring one roro barge or sea-river tonnage. Consolidates shipments and ability to build semi-liner service may help to drop river freight prices down per freight ton.
Main hubs in Russia shall be Bronka, St.Petersburg, Nizhnekamsk, Samara, Northern Moscow port, Rostov-on Don.
Having had vast experience of OOG shipments by water we plan to arrange such consolidation points and build regular water connections by owned and chartered in tonnage in 2016. |
