Association: Russia raises salt imports as cargo rail cars lack

MOSCOW, Nov 30 (PRIME) -- Russia has significantly increased imports of industrial and food salt in January–October due to the lack of cargo rail cars that local producers could use to transport their salt, the Association of Food Manufacturers and Suppliers Rusprodsoyuz said in a statement on Thursday.

According to the association, imports of industrial salt from Belarus soared 46.84% on the year to 873,529 tonnes in the period, and imports of food salt from the country grew 18.95% to 280,685 tonnes. Imports from Kazakhstan increased 4.11% to 130,124 tonnes and 14.28% to 126,392 tonnes, respectively. Imports of food salt from Azerbaijan almost tripled to 11,544 tonnes.

“At the same time, the share of Russian salt producers on the market is falling, and this year it fell 3.94% to 645,880 tonnes,” the statement read.

Russian producers are able not only to cover all internal demand for salt, but also increase exports. But recent problems with Russian railway operators lacking cargo rail cars led to producers’ inability to transport their salt from fields located in the south of the country, the Urals, and Siberia. This translated into a higher share of foreign companies that have no transportation problems, the association said quoting Executive Director Dmitry Vostrikov.

If the situation with cargo rail cars does not change, the industry may fail to fulfill the imports substitution program. “Today Russian producers have a record excessive stock of the product of over 1 million tonnes, and companies are unable to bring the volume to the market,” Vostrikov said as cited by the association.

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