The RZD-Partner reports, that Latvian Railways (Latvijas Dzelzceļs, LDz) are planning to complete four large infrastructural projects in 2012 with the total investment budget of 267.97 million USD.
LDZ will refurbish the Shkirotava marshalling yard, modernize the Bolderaya 1 – Zasulauks link, build the Bolderaya 2 station and extend the East – West route by building a second track in between Skriveri and Skrutpils .
LDZ is the main link among the Latvian Ports of Ventspils, Riga and Liepaja, and the final points of freight reception — dispatch to CIS countries and other continental regions.
Infrastructure development has always been a priority for Latvian Railways. The projects of 2012 as well as the previous project are mainly aimed to increase the capacity of the East-West corridor.
The improvement of the infrastructure will allow for a faster turnover as well as increasing traffic speed.
All of the projects are to be co-financed by the EU at up to 75% of the project amount.
As our partner Maxx Intermodal Systems informs, currently there is a wagon shortage in Riga. The recent railway accident is not the only reason that causes destabilization of the platform situation in Riga. As we know, the volume shipped via Riga during the last decade was extremely high compounded by the fact that Kazakh and Uzbek railways are not returning Latvian platforms preferring to route them instead to other countries. As a result, the ability to move the backlog and dispatching of freight is slow.
Please be advised about possible delays as well storage charges that might be applied by the port if the material is not able to be provided a rail platform before free time expires in port.
As our partner informs, in order to avoid in future any problems with improper use of the platforms by other countries, Latvia is discussing an option to privatize all their platforms. However, this might lead to the increase of the railway tariff.
The situation started improving and we will keep you informed.
According to our partner Maxx Intermodal Systems , the railway accident that happened on the 8th of January has paralyzed all inner and outer movement through Latvian ports.
LETA reports that around 360 tons of oil products and solvent were spilled on the Kraslava-Daugavpils railroad section during the freight train accident in Naujene County, Daugavpils Region (eastern Latvia). A protective dam has been erected to contain the spill, limiting the area to around 4,000 square meters. The freight train ran off the tracks in Naujene County, and as a result, 16 tank cars overturned and three of them ruptured. The train was en route from Belarus to Ventspils. No one was injured.
Please be advised that over 150 block trains are waiting in line and cannot reach Riga.
Please be advised about the new additional Qingdao station railway increase and storage application.
Our partners, Maxx Intermodal Systems report that starting from January 1st , 2012 an increase of USD 100 / Platform (2×20’ctrs or 1×40’ctr) will be applied for all transit and export cargo en route to Qingdao – Alashankou based on actual dispatch date. As a direct order of Chinese Railways, the tariff increase is applied it to all cargo that will be leaving Qingdao, as from January 1st (regardless of arrival date to Huangdao).
Please also take into consideration that Qingdao Port Authorities adopted an additional lift on/off charges and storage charges for all cargo which are arriving to port with Weidong Ferry, starting from January 1st, 2012. This can be explained by increasing cost of operations. Storage charges starting from day 5 will be USD 1.5 per TEU. Additional lift on/lift off charges are still under review but an increase is expected. We will keep you informed.
As BBC reports, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Saturday declared a state of emergency in the Caspian town of Zhanaozen after clashes between police and laid-off oil workers killed at least 11 people.
The state of emergency will last until January 5 to “ensure public safety, rebuild law and order, and defend citizens’ rights and freedoms,” said a decree posted on the president’s official website.
As the authorities report, “hooligans” attacked local residents who gathered near a stage set up in the town’s main square for the 20th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union. A number of buildings including local government offices, a hotel and the office of the state oil company were set on fire, Kazakhstan’s General Prosecutor Askhat Daulbayev said.
The number of dead varies. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports, at least 13 people were killed and another 86 were wounded in clashes between striking oil workers and national police. According to footage on the satellite channel’s YouTube account, around 50 people died.
Many websites, including Twitter, RIA Novosti news agency, and regional agency Lada.kz have been blocked in Kazakhstan since Friday evening. The cell phones of journalists in Aktau, the regional centre about 120 kilometres (75 miles) from Zhanaozen, were also blocked.
What happened raises many serious questions. One of the main one is, what reasons did the police have for using firearms against unarmed people?” the opposition National Social Democratic party said in a statement.
The second question why nothing has been done to prevent this incident? For five months, hundreds of workers from the oil fields of western Kazakhstan have been on strike demanding better pay and working conditions.
The director of Ozenmunaigas, an oil field owned by Kazakhstan’s state oil company Kazmunaigas, states their wages have been raised six times. On the other side, the strikers claim the extra pay for working in dangerous conditions, that they have been promised but never got.
According to the New Socialists of Kazakhstan, “high oil prices on world markets and high unemployment paralyzed the workers’ protest movement. Part of the oil profits were destined to the state budget but also to the corrupt Nazarbaev clan. The rest of the money was used to subsidize the bureaucracy and to build a repressive machine that transformed Kazakhstan into an authoritarian dictatorship”.
But as a result, who won in this situation? It has led to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenue. According to BBC, the Zhanaozen strike is one of several industrial actions to have hit western Kazakhstan’s Mangistau region this year.
Workers at Karazhanbasmunai, an oil field jointly owned by Kazmunaigas and a Chinese state corporation, took to the streets in the nearby Caspian port town of Aktao in May. Their protest was also broken up by police. Karazhanbasmunai fired 993 of its workers.The protest also spread to Ersai-Caspian Contractor, an Italian and Kazakh joint-venture operating in the region.
The industrial unrest has hurt Kazmunaigas. It claims production is down by 7% from this time last year – largely because of the strikes. That has cost almost $600m in lost revenue.
As our partner TCR reports, the delays at the crossing of Alashankou and Dostyk continue due to the large volumes of containers coming in from Qingdao and Lianyungang. There are currently 4,600 TEU in Qingdao and 10,546 TEU in Lianyungang. Reloading between Alashankou and Dostyk is still 200 wagons per day and barging from Huangdao to Qingdao is still very slow, because slow dispatching from Qingdao does not allow the station to free up space to accept barges with more containers from Huangdao.
Qingdao Railway Bureau is planning to resume with dispatches of 2 block trains every 3 days. In case this will go through and China Railways will not issue more restriction orders and we may see some movement from Qingdao in the coming days and weeks.
We expect container to be shipped out as following:
Arrival to Huangdao before September 2011 => dispatch by rail before December 31st, 2011
Arrival to Huangdao in October, 2011 – November, 2011 => dispatch by rail in January, 2012
Arrival to Huangdao after December 1st, 2011 => dispatch by rail after February 1st, 2012
We shall keep you informed in case of new developments!
Due to upcoming holidays in Finland, we would like to inform about the operation hours in Finish ports.
Independence day:
6th of December is the Independence day – offices in Finland are closed that day.
In Kotka and Hamina the two-shifts will end working on Monday, December 5th 2011 at 2.30 p.m. and they will not work on Independence Day December 6th. The five-shift in Kotka will work as normal.
The cargo control point in Kotka/Hamina is open on Monday, December 5th from 7.30 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. and it is closed on December 6th.
Christmas:
In Kotka and Hamina both shifts will end working on Friday, 23rd of December at 10.00 p.m. and they will start working again after Christmas on December 27th at 6.00 a.m.
The cargo control point, Kotka/Hamina will be open on 23rd of December from 7.30 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. and next time on Tuesday December 27th as normal.
At Vuosaari terminal the working time is on 23rd of December from 6.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m.
The Service Point in Gatehouse is open on December 23rd from 7.00 a.m. to 10.30 p.m.
Steveco´s Vuosaari terminal will be closed during Christmas 24th -26th of December 2011 and the working will start again on December 27th at 6.00 p.m.
All activity in port is closed during 23.12 starting from 22.00 ending Tuesday 27.12 at 06.00, during this time no container lifts possible.
Customs work is from 8.00 a.m to 4.00 p.m.
New Year:
On Saturday, December 31st 2011 the two shifts in Kotka and Hamina will end working at 11.00 a.m. They start working again on Monday January 2nd 2012 at 6.00 a.m. The five-shift will be working in Kotka as normal during December 31st, 2011 – January 2nd 2012.
The cargo control point in Kotka/Hamina will be open on Friday 30th of December from 7.30 a.m. to 7.00 p.m. and next time on the 2nd of January 2012.
As our partner TCR reports, there are currently delays at the crossing of Alashankou and Dostyk due to the large volumes of containers coming in from Qingdao and Lianyungang. There are currently 4,700 TEU in Qingdao and 8,064 TEU in Lianyungang. Reloading between Alashankou and Dostyk is still very slow with daily capacity of just about 200 wagons and the loading process to reaches up to 15 hours per train.
We expect railcars to be shipped out as following:
Arrival to Huangdao in August 2011 => dispatch by rail in November, 2011
Arrival to Huangdao in September 2011 => dispatch by rail in December 2011 – 10th January, 2012
Arrival to Huangdao in October 2011 => dispatch by rail after 10th January, 2012
In order to ease the congestion, it has been proposed that the entire railway be on one information system which will allow the railway and customs to have the ability to have smoother communication but up to this point, it has not been created.
We shall keep you duly informed of new developments!
In order to improve economic connections with Community of Independent States (CIS) nations, on Tuesday Russia signed a free- trade agreement with the Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Tajikistan. The new agreement would cancel import-export obligations on particular goods which weren’t announced yet. More than likely other states from the former Soviet Union such as Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan will join this bound. Agreement will come in effect only after the parliament improvement in 2012.
