The situation of empty container accumulation at Russian railway yards does not seem to have improved significantly. The main reason for the imbalance in Russian container import and export trade is the long-term surge of imports from China, coupled with weakened Russian product exports.

Taking the data from June this year as an example, compared to the same period last year, various categories of Russian container exports showed a year-on-year decline. Among them, wood exports reached 39,200 TEUs, a 3% decrease compared to the same period last year. Paper and pulp exports reached 20,400 TEUs, a 9% decrease year-on-year. Chemical products exports amounted to 13,900 TEUs, a significant decrease of 36%, mainly due to the reduced supply of synthetic resins from Russia to China and Turkey.

There are several factors in the third quarter that have benefited Russia's non-commodity container exports. For example, the depreciation of the ruble and the increase in subsidies provided by the Russian government for using containers to transport goods for export in the central region.

According to a study by Gazprombank, exporting a 40’ container from the Moscow region can provide a subsidy of $1200, while exporting containers from Yekaterinburg can provide a subsidy of $650.

However, despite these factors, the volume of container exports in various ways in Russia has shown a month-on-month decline.

As per logistic industry insiders in the Russian, "The growth of Russia's exports to China has not matched the growth of imports." In addition, experts believe that the issue of trade imbalance between Russia and China is likely to persist in the future.

"The number of empty containers in Saint Petersburg and Moscow continues to increase, with the highest demand on these shipping routes. Therefore, the oversupply of empty containers will remain at a high level," experts concluded.

According to a study by the Russian Price Index Center, the situation is quite opposite for 20’ containers. Russian exports of 20’ containers mainly used for transporting fertilizers, non-ferrous metals, and vegetable oils, with the export volume exceeding the import volume. This also means that there is a certain degree of shortage of 20’ containers in the export market.

Source: New SilkRoad Discovery