IKAR sees Russia setting new grain export record in September

MOSCOW, Sep 29 (PRIME) -- Russia may export a record 5.8 million tonnes of grain, including 5.1 million tonnes of wheat, in September, but the figures may contract in October, Oleg Sukhanov, head of the research and forecasting department of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR), told PRIME on Tuesday.

“As of September 28, exports of Russian wheat amounted to 4.4 million tonnes, while total grain exports stood at 5.3 million tonnes. We estimate the official wheat export for the full month at 4.9–5.1 million tonnes, and total grain exports at 5.7–5.8 million tonnes, which will set another record for this season,” he said.

But exports of 5 million tonnes would be a great result for October even though it could have been 6 million tonnes or more -- restrictions connected to overloading triggered serious problems with car transportation companies unable to transport grain to the ports due to higher tariffs, he said.

On September 15, a memorandum came in force, under which market players agreed not to overload trucks with agricultural products and to deny unloading to the trucks, whose weight exceeds maximum weight by more than 2%. The share of car transportation is very high in small ports, and these difficulties may entail serious consequences for them, Sukhanov said.

“Previously, each Kamaz truck could transport 50–60 tonnes, but this figure now is halved while the time spent on unloading a truck is roughly the same. It obviously could lead to contraction of transshipment at terminals. That is why in October we may not see the volumes that we saw in August and September, in spite of the fact that we have a really large amount of contracts signed for the next two months,” he said.

End %%md/jst%%