LDz Cargo Waits for Back-haul

16.07.2008 (18:19)

According to general director of LDz Cargo Eriks Shmuksts, all available transport corridors in the Baltic States are not loaded to the full yet, therefore Latvia should use all possibilities to develop transport service and attract cargo owners.

– Mr. Shmuksts, could you characterize the first results of the company in 2008?

– I think that they are positive and we hope that the positive tendency will remain. Current volume of transportation exceeded our expectations in comparison with 2007. Despite it we cope with growing cargo flows and even have reserves in case they will increase.

– What is the volume of cargoes transported from the beginning of 2008?

– For the last five months, 23, 298 thousand tons were transported by LDZ Cargo(+11%). I mean comparison with that period when our company was not allocated as affiliated company from the structure of the Latvian railway. It was established on July, 5 in 2007. Earlier we were a part of Latvijas dzelzcels as freight transportation administration.

– Did the share of transit transportation in the general structure of throughput change in comparison with the similar period of 2007?

– It remains the same during many years, it doesn’t change. However the volume of coal transportation increases and the share of transported oil products reduces. Development of Russian port infrastructure allows to transport more oil products to Primorsk, St.-Petersburg and Novorossiysk. The oil products LDz Cargo transports are processed in Belarus and carried via Latvian ports as export from Belarus. Some oil products are carried from Russia, but the share is small in comparison with the total volume of oil products exported from the Russian Federation. Probably, Russian suppliers should diversify their cargo flows. We consider any variants to carry out transportation not only via Russian ports but also via Latvian ones. We try to offer clients the convenient and forecasted tariff policy which would provide long-term relations.

Certainly, the structure of cargoes is based on transportation of coal, oil products and mineral fertilizers. Nowadays 53% of all cargoes are transported from the Russian Federation.

Mineral fertilizers are exported from the regions where such enterprises as Uralkaly and Silvinit are situated, also there are Belarus fertilizers which are transshipped via Ventspils (port in Latvia) and Klaipeda (port in Lithuania).

Russia and Belarus are our main partners. The basic border crossings which service cargo transported from these countries are situated on key transport corridors and there is a direct connection with the Transsib. As for back-haul, a large volume of cargoes is transported from Russia and Belarus to Latvian ports. These are transit cargoes, and they amount to 85% from total transportation volume due to special infrastructure of Latvian ports.

– I agree with you, I already had a possibility to visit ports in Ventspils, Liepaja and Riga. Could you speak about situation with approach railways to these ports?

– We develop our railway infrastructure. Though it is not main task of our company because we carry out cargo transportation, we only exploit infrastructure, LDz maintains it as parent company. It should provide growth of infrastructure operational possibilities. It includes increase of throughput, electrification and coordination of all these points with railways, including Russian ones.

– What could you tell about establishment of the enterprises which will provide freight forwarding and logistics services?

– The company LDz Cargo-logistics was established several months ago. It should develop new market of services. We enter this market, concluding direct contracts with participants of the transport market, including TransContainer and other forwarders in the CIS and the Baltic States to provide a transport flow convenient for our clients, i.e. door-to-door delivery.

– Could you tell about plans on further development of LDz Cargo?

– Our plans include establishment of new partner relations and maintenance of existing client base. Nowadays it includes 3,000 clients. We will strengthen cooperation with our partners in the CIS, establish new relations with Western Europe to develop transport product by means of established logistic company.

– What measures are taken for it?

– I’ll give an example – container train "Baltica-Transit". It is a real example of cooperation of railway administrations of Russia, the Baltic States, Kazakhstan and the companies – cargo operators. This transport product was established in 2003. Firstly, one run of one train a week was planned, now their quantity increased to three-four. Cargoes flow consolidation is carried out in the Baltic ports, then cargoes are transported to Rezekne station, then the train runs via the RF territory along the Transsib to Almaty. Then cargo flow is divided, cargoes are transported to Kazakhstan and other CIS countries in Central Asia.

Nowadays one of the main tasks for successful traffic of this train is its back-haul at the expense of the Central Asia (I mean Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan etc.) and also the Chinese region. Certainly, it is necessary to solve a lot of problems to make this transport product work on another direction, nevertheless we hold working meetings and consultations for development of this trend.

Interviewed by Stanislav Russkov 

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