Transport Ministry notes fall in Russian Far East's container terminal load, situation improving

MOSCOW. Oct 29 (Interfax) - The Russian Transport Ministry is seeing an improvement in the situation regarding the load at container terminals in the Far East, First Deputy Transport Minister Valentin Ivanov told journalists on the sidelines of the International Customs Forum.

"We have carried out monitoring; we're keeping an eye on the situation. Currently, we have around 90% load at the terminals of sea ports in the Far East and around 60% load at off-dock terminals. That's a normal build-up, there's no critical issue here," he said.

The load at container terminals was greater a month ago and is now declining, he said.

Commenting on the possibility of reactivating three additional container trains, Ivanov said, "We will look at this issue if necessary, if the load increases and if this is needed. For now we see the situation as sufficiently balanced."

One reason why the situation has improved is the redistribution of container flow to routes passing through the Baltic and the Azov-Black Sea basin, as well as via railway border crossings.

It was previously reported that amid imbalances in export-import container cargo flows and the limited throughput capacity of the Eastern Polygon, marine container terminals in Primorye are almost fully loaded with import containers, due to a lack of rolling stock to transport the accumulated amounts to Russia's central regions.