With the western sanctions imposed on Russia the country has faced a serious shortage of ship repair facilities: those of Turkey and China are not enough. The problems in the industry and the ways to solve them were in the focus of the 2nd Ship Repair, Modernization and Components Conference organized by IAA PortNews.

The eighth package of sanctions has closed the “window to Europe” for Russia’s methanol exports. The transshipment via the Finnish port of Hamina-Kotka has stopped but the first methanol terminal was opened in the Far East. There are still logistical problems and producers look more closely at the domestic market, including ship bunkering.

Daltransugol JSC (a company of NTC JSC) is set to increase its terminal capacity to 40 million by 2025 through implementation of a large-scale investment plan. However, its loading will particularly depend on implementation of Russian Railways’ plans to develop the Eastern Polygon.

The scientific and engineering community of Russia has faced a task of providing shipowners with domestic technological solutions. Oleg Savchenko, General Director of Krylov State Research Center, tells IAA PortNews about the progress of the work on designing grain and gas carriers, about the current inability to build Azipod units and about the prospects of solving the problem with low-speed engines.

Although Russia’s port infrastructure is sufficient for grain exports, the bottlenecks of grain flows are on railways and roads. Low turnover of railway cars results in idle time of up to 50 days while weight control on motorways leads to underloading of road trains. As for flour export, it is affected by the dumping from the side of Turkey which produces grain from Russian grain.

The research of the Fuels and Energy Technology Development Institute (IRTTEK) reveals the threat of blocking the Danish Straits for ships sailing to and from Russia. Maritime law experts told IAA PortNews that such actions would have no legal basis, although they cannot be ruled out either. In our opinion, restrictions on the passage of ships through the Black Sea Straits are more realistic.

The regions of Russia have set a course for the development of high-speed passenger transportation by rivers. First of all, water communication will be developed on the Volga river. IAA PortNews tells about the revival of this type of transport and the associated difficulties.

One of Russia’s key export commodities, oil, continues to be exported almost exclusively by foreign vessels. The share of Russian operators and ship owners, or foreign companies associated with them is insignificant. Having analyzed oil shipments from the country’s three major oil ports in June, PortNews came to an interesting conclusion: foreigners still get the bulk of income from transport services in this segment.

RF Government and Sistema PJSFC have recently signed an agreement of intent to develop hydrogen energetics. Designing of hydrogen-power ships is already underway in Russia but their commercial prospects are still vague. Ships running on hydrogen can be first of all used in the segment of passenger transportation.

In the first half of 2023, the share of Russia’s foreign trade cargo handled in the ports of the neighboring Baltic states made 1.46% of Russian seaports’ total volume, down from 2.7% a year ago. However, handling of some Russian cargoes in the ports of unfriendly countries has increased.