The volume of forest cargo transportation to China is declining, the transportation of forest cargo to China at the landfill of the Far Eastern Railway has recorded a stable downward trend, the Russian Railways Partner was informed by the road service of corporate communications. The main reason for the drop in transportation is a sharp collapse in the price of forest products in China at the end of July 2015, which caused a drop in demand for Russian timber, said the representative of the service Inna Pepelyaeva.  

As of August 24, 2015, the loading of forest cargo, which is the main item of export transportation to China at the Far Eastern Railway landfill, is 236.3 thousand tons or 10.3 thousand tons on average per day, with a loading plan of 344.1 thousand tons or 11.1 thousand tons on average per day, I. Pepelyaeva said. The under-load is 19.3 thousand tons in absolute value or 0.8 thousand tons on average per day, which is 7.6% of the planned volume of traffic.

In addition, it is noted at the Far Eastern Railway that during the same period in June 2015, 270.0 thousand tons of forest cargo were loaded, in July 2015 – 250.1 thousand tons, that is, there is a stable trend towards a drop in volumes. Clients of the Far Eastern Railway, who were interviewed by marketers of the Road Center for branded Transport services, noted that due to problems in the stock market of China, banks have increased loan rates and tightened credit policy. This caused a decrease in demand and a decrease in purchase prices for products of the forest industry of the Russian Federation.

As a result, the Russian logging companies have not concluded contracts with Chinese partners or reduced the contractual volumes of supplies in order to exclude the shutdown of their own enterprises.

alexey lebedev