Russian Railways lowers tariffs to encourage the transportation of semi-finished products

JSC Russian Railways (RZD) has announced a reduction in tariffs for the transportation of containers and steel semi-finished products in certain areas, Kallanish notes.

“From this month, an 11.1% discount is introduced for the export transportation of steel billets and slabs from the Novolipetskaya station to the Tuapse-Sortirovochnaya station,” the company’s press service said in a statement. “The discount is valid for an additional volume of cargo over 815,000 tons from September 1 to the end of the year. This decision was made to attract additional volumes of cargo to the railway.”

Next year, the carrier will provide a 10.2% discount on the transportation of loaded 40-foot containers from the Elektrougli station near Moscow to Yekaterinburg. The discount is applied when transporting at least 4,000 such containers, Russian Railways adds.

One of the beneficiaries of this could be NLMK, which continues to export slabs from Russia, as it is not yet included in the EU steel sanctions list.

Previously, NLMK reached an agreement with NLMK Belgium Holdings (NBH), a joint venture with Walloon investment fund Sogepa, to integrate NLMK DanSteel into NBH (see Callanish passage).

According to NLMK, the consolidation of these assets of the Russian steel plant will streamline the European asset management structure and provide additional strategic flexibility and synergy.

Earlier, the Association "Russian Steel" stated that the loading of Russian steel-rolling capacities will continue to decline until the end of the year. Reasons for lower recycling include lower domestic steel consumption; in the second quarter of 2022, Russian demand has already decreased by 16% compared to the previous quarter. Steel consumption is expected to fall by 22% in the second half compared to the first half.
Source: Kallanish