Moscow, 23 November (Argus) — Russia's far east ports are suffering from worsening coal traffic congestion. The far east railway has asked parent company state-owned rail operator RZD to suspend coal shipments to the largest coal terminal, Vostochny, as 49 trains are queuing up near the port.

This comes on top of restrictions introduced earlier this month on rail transport to a number of other far east terminals, and would severely reduce coal shipments to far east ports. Shipments to Vanino's commercial sea port and Suek's Daltransugol terminal in Muchke bay near Vanino have stopped altogether, with 41 trains halted.

Coal shipments through the Attis terminal in Nakhodka and from Raspadskaya through Nakhodka's commercial sea port are suspended, despite accounting for about a quarter of total coal transit through Nakhodka. In January-October, just over 2mn t of coal was shipped through Nakhodka terminals.

New shipments to Mechel's Posyet are limited to 50 railcars/day. The port normally unloads 200 railcars/day, but in November it could only unload about 70 railcars/day, the railway said.

The suspension of new shipments introduced in the middle of the month has so far failed to ease congestion, as a number of loaded railcars were already on their way to the far east. The bottleneck has increased, reaching 168 trains — or 9,440 railcars — today, compared with 147 trains on 17 November.

December coal exports through far east ports are expected to fall drastically, as RZD will be unable to transport the coal.

In January-October, Russian exports to Asia-Pacific were 34pc up on the same period last year at 24mn t.

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