IKAR in Mass and Industry Media

Russia Rail Curbs at Grain Export Hub Ending as Sales Jump

Bloomberg

Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Rail curbs for grain deliveries to Russia's main export hub in the southern port of Novorossiysk are ending, with a ban partially lifted from yesterday, as the country is poised for another monthly record in overseas deliveries.

The ban for rail shipments of grains to OAO Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port's export terminal was lifted yesterday, the country's monopoly OAO Russian Railways said in an e-mailed statement today. Restrictions at the second terminal, owned by state trader United Grain Co., remain in place, and may be lifted if the backlog gets smaller, according to the statement.

Russian Railways imposed the ban on Aug. 27 because of a backlog of freight cars near the ports. The backlog rose to 3,600 cars on Aug. 29. Russian traders are exporting record amounts of grain after the government let a ban on overseas deliveries expire July 1. It barred exports in August 2010 after a drought decimated the country's crop.

"All the foreign customers will receive the grain they need from Russia," Arkady Zlochevksy, president of the Russian Grain Union, said in an interview today. "The railcars with grain to be exported via Novorossiysk are being loaded again."

3.3 Million Tons

Russian Railways said 2,029 freight cars were waiting to be unloaded at Novorossiysk's two terminals as of 8 a.m. in Moscow today, including 1,162 cars destined for the terminal owned by United Grain. The ban at the terminal may be lifted Sept. 15, Oleg Rogachev, first deputy chief executive officer of grain carrier ZAO Rusagrotrans, said in an interview in Moscow today.

Russia may export a record 3.3 million metric tons of grain in September, with about 40 percent shipped from Novorossiysk, according to the Moscow-based Institute for Agricultural Market Studies. Russia exported 5.7 million tons of grain in July and August, with wheat making up 92 percent of the total, Sergei Sukhov, head of grain-markets regulation department at the Agriculture Ministry, said today.

Russia will export 18 million tons of grain in the 2011-12 season, 2 million tons more than previously forecast, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's attache in Moscow said. That would restore its position as the third-largest wheat exporter after the U.S. and Australia, according to USDA data.

Restrictions on rail deliveries to Novorossiysk are a "routine event'' that won't reduce Russia's grain-export potential, according to Vladimir Petrichenko, head of Moscow-based researcher OOO ProZerno. Such restrictions occurred in August 2008 and three times throughout 2009 and lasted "about a week," according to Russian Railways.

28.09.11

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