March/April 2019
B ULK D ISTRIBUTOR
Russia
3
A now discontinued waste facility near St Petersburg.
Russia joined EFTCO some years ago, but Havila
laments the lack of progress in bringing local cleaning
infrastructure up to standards found elsewhere
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T
he use of ISO tank containers in Russia continues to grow.
Nikolay Grigorev, president of logistics group Havila, says
this is largely due to two factors: a lack of suitable rail tank
cars (RTCs) for chemical transport and railway tariffs that give
an advantage to tank containers over RTCs.
Nevertheless, a number of challenges remain. A shortage of
rolling stock, notably flatbeds for carrying ISO containers, is jacking
up prices both among equipment leasing providers and operators.
Currently, the Russian domestic market for tank containers is
probably in the region of 15-17,000 units. Currently, only two big
global leasing companies offer this type of equipment, but
Grigorev says the interest is there and this year some new players
should start appearing.
But another big stumbling block is the lack of robust and reliable
cleaning infrastructure. Havila itself has invested in depots – in
Tambov and Togliatti – but these remain the only two certified
depots in all of Russia.
Russia joined the European Federation of Tank Cleaning
Organisations (EFTCO) some years ago, but Grigorev laments the
lack of progress in bringing local cleaning infrastructure up to
standards found elsewhere in Europe.
The majority of cleaning depots are not even meeting Russia’s
minimum requirements for safe waste treatment, he says. Such
examples exist even in the biggest cities - like Moscow and St
Petersburg - and there have been a number of fatal accidents
resulting from poor safety management.
Interior of a cleaning depot in Moscow. High time to bring Russian
cleaning facilities up to standards found in Western Europe
Russia’s chemical sector has not changed significantly over recent
years. The country still produces commodity chemicals and imports
specialities. The main import flows are products such as
plasticisers, solvents, hydrogen peroxide and aniline, while export
flows are dominated by those produced in phenol-acetone plants
(alpha-methylstyrene, phenol, acetone), monomers, xylenes, and
caustic soda. A majority of these products are transported in tank
containers using different transport modes.
For non-hazardous chemicals and food products, flexitanks also
provide a cheaper alternative. Although, some restrictions, and
Havila’s Tambov depot. Along with the group’s Togliatti
site these are the only certified depots in Russia
Havila’s President Nikolay Grigorev. We encourage all tank container operators doing business
in Russia to follow European practices and culture in terms of cleaning arrangements
indeed recommendations of flexitank producers as to their use on
Russian railways, can make this type of transport less attractive to
shippers.
Road transport in tank trucks is still a source of competition for
spot flows to or from neighbouring countries where intermodal is
not an option. Such transports work well over distances of under
1,500km between shipper and consignee, where the core
advantages are higher payloads and much shorter transit times
compared to containers on rail.
In the past year a lot of new block trains have been launched to
and from Russia to different parts of Asia (mainly China), but the
concept does not work well for ISO tanks carrying chemicals, and
these trains are used mainly for general cargoes.
In summary, the Russian market for tank containers is developing
actively with average annual growth of 10-13 percent, but
Grigorev points out that time is still needed to change the mindset
of shippers and operators, and only combining those ambitions
with expertise from the global market will allow the Russian
market to develop properly.
“Havila’s group of companies is encouraging all tank container
operators doing business in Russia to follow European practices
and culture in terms of cleaning arrangements and choose the
right cleaning partners,” he says.
www.havila.ee