RLL Container Report - 10 December 2014
From: John Keir, Ross Learmont Ltd Email: john.keir@telia.com Date: 10 December 2014
The Grand Old Man of the Railways shows how it is done.
There has been much talk of trial shipments of block trains from provincial Chinese cities via Dostyk and on to Europe. In June of last year, the US news channel, CNN filmed the departure of the first “block train” from Chongqing and its arrival in Dostyk. Rather than a sleek and efficient intermodal service, the CNN film clearly shows the 40’ HC containers being loaded into conventional rail wagons normally used for the transport of coal or other bulk cargoes. Several days, and 3,500 km later, the same CNN film crew was on hand to film the arrival of the block train, carrying thousands of personal computers, at the border crossing station of Dostyk – still loaded on conventional rail wagons. It is only when the train moved into Kazakhstan that the containers were loaded and properly secured with twist-locks on to container platforms for the next leg of their journey to Poland. The film report must have caused a great deal of consternation when viewed by the executives of the computer company and the operator promoting the service.
A year later and personal computers are now being loaded into special refrigerated containers with in-built diesel generators. Clearly, someone had noted that the valuable and temperature-sensitive personal computers could be harmed by the very low temperatures common during the long winters in Central Eurasia. It is estimated that these special reefers were almost four times more expensive than a standard, production-line reefer used by the major shipping lines. This, in turn, means that the reefer containers are more than 20 times more expensive than the standard 40’ HC dry cargo containers used by shipping lines to transport the same computer products around the globe. This must make it difficult to offer competitive pricing on the direct overland route.
In the meantime, regular block trains carrying 20’ and 40’ HC containers continue to provide regular intermodal services on the Transiberian Railway. Indeed, RZD has just launched a new 6-day block train service from Vostochny to Moscow to demonstrate that the TSR is not as slow as some of its detractors would have us believe. Of course, most of the regular container services on this route take 10 to 11 days to complete the same journey but their average speed is no worse than that of the large, modern 18,000 teu vessels that dominate the Asia to Europe deep-sea services. Container trains are usually restricted to a maximum of 150 km per hour. Ours is a slow, plodding industry, so if you want speed and glamour, you had better re-train to be an airline pilot.
Criticism of the low speeds achieved on transcontinental railways in general, and on the Transiberian route in particular, ignores one very important point. Logistics is not about speed; rather it is all about efficiency. A lot of money could be invested in upgrading major rail corridors only to find that the connecting feeder service has just left the port and the next vessel is not due for another week. In Western Europe, we are jealous, as we have never had a transcontinental railway like the TSR. No sooner had you sat down in a train, than you were being told to get off and change to another train operating on a different gauge or voltage. It is only now, one hundred years after the completion of the TSR that the European Union is developing a strategy, which will allow through trains to run from Tallinn to Turin and from Piraeus to Paris.
Russian commentators appear to enjoy taking pot shots at the Grand Old Man of transcontinental railways. This week a headline ran: “Транссиб: едем медленно и печально”. (Literal translation –“Transib: we are travelling slowly and sadly”). When someone is short of a good argument, they invariably try to impart human feelings and actions to an inanimate object, such as the 9,289 km long, Transiberian railway. The whole proposition is absurd, as iron rails can neither move nor express emotions. More importantly, the article overlooked, or even misunderstood, the vital role that the Transiberian Railway is playing in transforming intermodal logistics in Russia.
No major trade route on land or on sea operates a balanced system with an equal number of laden containers moving in both directions. The US Department of Agriculture advertises the availability of containers at major West Coast terminals to carry grain, rice and other products back to Asia. This scheme has had some success but there is simply not the volume of cargo moving on specific routes at specific times to fill all the available slots, and so many units return empty. While other trade routes try to perform tricks while balancing precariously on a two-legged stool, the TSR is quietly developing a successful three-legged stool approach.
First, it carries containerised imports moving from China and S E Asia via Vladivostok and Vostochny to the major population centres in Western Russia, from where there is little direct return cargo to Asia. However, the same Russian cities have regular flows of domestic container traffic to the large cities in the Urals, Western and Eastern Siberia, as well as the Russian Far East. These cargo flows form the second leg of the stool. The inbound containers are used either to transport cargoes on domestic services or to carry the limited volumes of export cargoes to the Far East ports.
These export boxes then form part of the third leg, to which can be added the units loaded with cargo at Vladivostok and Vostochny. The current rise in the volume and weight of export containers passing through the Far East ports is mainly attributable to the sharp rise in traditional Russian exports being shipped in boxes to S E Asian countries. In the first eleven months of 2014, box traffic reached 433,000 teu, which is a rise of 6% on the figure for the corresponding period last year. The tonnage transported in these containers topped 5,024,000 tons, representing a 7% increase on the 2013 figure. Bulk cargoes such as fertilisers, non-ferrous metals and chemicals are being loaded into empty boxes at the port, from where they are despatched to receivers in Asia.
Few railways are able to replicate the three-legged stool strategy of the Transiberian Railway.
John Keir, Ross Learmont Ltd.
10 December 2014
Copyright ©, 2014, John Keir