Magazines — RZD-Partner International — 1 (5) March-May 2006
1 (5) March-May 2006
"IF IT IS TRANSIT, WE'LL MAKE IT COMPETITIVE": "Russia hosts foreign airplanes, in the future we'll welcome trains (the Finnish "Sibelius" has already been calling) and, consequently, river vessels. We ought not to close, but, on the opposite, we should encourage the boost of transportation volumes", assures Igor Levitin, The RF Minister of Transport.DEPENDENT COAL: Lately Russian coal sector has been considered one of the most stable and fast developing, due to high coal prices on the world markets and investment activity of coal producers. Analysts evaluate coal produce at about 282 million tons in 2005.
TO SAVE RUSSIAN SHIPBUILDING: Russia is one of the leading sea powers in the world, historically in possession of a strong merchant, fishery and military fleet. However, by now it has almost lost its leading positions in the sphere of shipping and shipbuilding.
Editorial
EDITORIAL
The year of 2005 was rather stable for the Russian transport sector and all transport modes performed successfully. Throughput grew by 2.6% in comparison with 2004, due to produce volume growth in key sectors. Road transport increased most, namely to 193.6 billion tons per kilometer. Railways throughput went up by 3.1%. However, sea and river transport fell down by 3.2% and 9.8% respectively.