DEVELOPMENT OF CONTAINER TRANSPORTATION AS ONE OF THE WAYS OF REGULATING FREIGHT FLOW DIRECTED TO THE EASTERN RANGE

ABSTRACT

The article is devoted to the importance of railway transport in the Russian economy and its role in ensuring spatial relations between regions. The reversal of logistics to the East has led to a disparity in the export and import of containers in the eastern direction. Since rail transport is the dominant function in the transportation of goods and is important in the conditions of acute socio-political contradictions, the article considered ways to solve the problem promptly.

Keywords: railway transport; loading, container transportation; logistics; seaports, economic development, container in a gondola car, twin container trains.

In the Russian Federation, railway transport is one of the factors of economic development and is important in conditions of acute socio-political contradictions. The development of railway transport and its infrastructure is becoming one of the factors of considerable importance in the search for a way out of the negative macroeconomic situation [1]. The dominant function of railway transport is the transportation of goods. Despite the difficult foreign policy situation, the volume of container traffic on the Russian Railways network at the end of 2022 did not decrease, and even increased slightly (by 0.3% - to 6.52 million TEU). As part of the work, to assess the dynamics of cargo transportation in containers, an analysis was made of “Dynamics of cargo transportation in containers by type of transportation from 2017–2021” The amount of cargo transported in containers is increasing from year to year, the largest increase being observed in export transportation.

At the same time, based on the results of January 2023, experts recorded a significant increase in the volume of container traffic in the direction of ports and border crossings of the Far East. The main share of the increase came from imports through the ports of the Far East (+34%) and imports through land border crossings (+26%). A significant share of the increase was made up of machinery, equipment and their parts (+22.3%) and electrical household products and appliances (+62.6%); products made of ferrous metals (+36.5%); products made of plastics and synthetic resins (+25.2%) [2]. China continued to occupy a key position in container imports, the volume of transportation from which increased by 29.2%, or 166.9 thousand TEU. The resulting turn of logistics to the East led to increased load on the Eastern training ground, the infrastructure of which was not ready for such impressive growth rates. Container transportation by rail is usually cheaper than transportation by other modes of transport.

This is due to the fact that the railway transport can transport large volumes of cargo at a time, which reduces the cost of transportation. The demand for container transportation is increasing due to the fact that containers are an important element of the logistics system and contribute to the formation of more than 13% of the gross domestic product (hereinafter GDP) in those sectors of the economy where container logistics plays a critical role. Platforms with containers contribute three times more to GDP than wagons with coal, and one and a half times more than the weighted average railway cargo. Currently, there is a significant imbalance in the export and import of containers in the eastern direction, where the incoming flow exceeds the outgoing flow by 30–40%. It is necessary to solve the problem of supplying fitting platforms or removing containers in other ways. One of the solutions that does not require capital investment is to organize the removal of containers in gondola cars. All past years, gondola cars were used to deliver bulk cargo for export. In 2020, coal exports decreased; the drop in coal loading affected the market for gondola cars, the share of which in the Russian freight car fleet is about 45%. Another way to satisfy the growing demand for cargo in the Eastern direction, given the infrastructure restrictions at the site, may be to increase the number of double container trains.

The peculiarity of double trains is that when placing an order, the schedules of container trains are as close as possible for their further departure along one line of the schedule. The ability to “expand” and “increase” their carrying capacity has a certain technical framework. Major repairs and modernization of railway infrastructure, which may include reconstruction and expansion of tracks and stations, as well as the introduction of new signaling systems, will increase the capacity of the railway line and reduce time delays, but require large investments. To develop sustainable and uninterrupted operation of the infrastructure of checkpoints and rear terminals in the Far East, in 2023, JSC Russian Railways plans to allocate 7.5 billion rubles.

Organizing the transportation of containers in gondola cars helps to resolve the problems of imbalance of transport and logistics flows in the transportation of containers. Transshipment of containers, thanks to new technologies for loading into gondola cars, in terms of the amount of time spent on its organization, is already comparable to transshipment of containers from fitting platforms. This technology will be in demand until the number of fitting platforms compensates for the imbalance that has arisen.

The main problems when transporting containers in gondola cars are: organizing the safe fastening and placement of the container in the gondola car for safe passage; increased cost of transshipment; the possibility of damage to the container during loading; not all are equipped with technical devices to carry out cargo operations with containers in a gondola car. The use of double container train technology has already shown a positive effect and has made it possible to achieve the daily dispatch of 4 double (that is, 8 ordinary) express container trains from the Moscow hub to the Far East. The main task in the construction of new infrastructure, transport and logistics centers should be given to the quality of the designed devices. Container terminals should not be dead ends, but end-to-end for the convenience of further interaction with other modes of transport. The processes must be comprehensive and aimed at reducing the amount of shunting work at the site.

References:

1. Шапкин И.Н., Самойлова И.М. Развитие железных дорог как одно из приоритетных направлений роста экономики. Журнал «Соискатель». Москва, №2, 2015, С. 39-41.
2. Стратегический отчет 2021 Fesco. https://ar2021.fesco.ru/strategic-report/market-overview/transportation-market-overview
3. Контейнерооборот Дальнего Востока растет через силу https://www.rzd-partner.ru/logistics/comments/konteynerooborot-dalnego-vostoka-rastet-cherez-silu/
4. Погрузка на сети РЖД в марте 2023 выросла на 2,3 %, до 109,1 млн. т. https://www.rzd-partner.ru/zhd-transport/news/pogruzka-na-seti-rzhd-v-marte-2023-goda-vyrosla-na-2-3-do-109-1-mln-tonn/