Russia develops ports and upsets neighboring countries

In every major seaside town there is a port. From this place, the romanticism of distant wanderings flutters, here smells of great salt water, solar burnt and fuel oil are mixed, the air is announced by the screech of rigging, the clang of metal and the whistles of ships. The lighthouse winks gaily with its red eye, hinting at the opportunity to see new distances and exotic perspectives. But all this is romantic, and in economic reality each port is a place where huge money is earned.

How does the commercial sea port work?

In this life, you need to pay for everything, including for transshipment of goods. Until recently, Russian counterparties spent considerable funds to ensure that the goods they received came to them through foreign ports. There is unloading from the holds, then loading into other means of transportation, that is, railroad cars, container trucks and vessels, sometimes river or also sea, but short coastal traffic. For all these operations there are rates and tariffs, which include profits according to approved standards. With these amounts, fees and taxes are paid to the budget of the country to which the port belongs. The reasons for which Russian goods exported and imported goods passed through the foreign countries' harbors are different. Sometimes the role played a historical factor, at times it was even cheaper, there were political moments, such as the support of friendly countries, but little else what else. But the most important reason in most cases was still the insufficient level of development of own ports and their relatively low throughput.

Direction of investments

Over the past decade and a half, the Russian state has invested heavily in the development of domestic ports. These expended money can reasonably be attributed to justified and highly profitable investments, the return of which will have a positive impact on the economic situation in the very near future. The new infrastructure of water transport cost 28 billion rubles only last year. The result of these investments is an increase in capacity of 20 million tons per year, and this year is expected to grow even more impressive, by 32 million tons. In a decade and a half, cargo turnover of ports rose by 170%, which is impressive, especially in the global crisis. The most promising areas were the Baltic (several new terminals were built), as well as the Arctic and the Far East, but there are also achievements on the Black Sea.

Communicating vessels

The importance of the development of port infrastructure is evident not only for the state, but also for private entrepreneurs. Of the 28 billion rubles, only one-third is invested from the budget, the rest is laid out by business representatives. This is understandable, such costs ensure long-term ownership of a very important sector of the economy, and its real sector. The redistribution of cargo flows in favor of Russian ports is natural, this process was inevitable, although some foreign policy factors accelerated it. Since, unfortunately, the increase in turnover through all the harbors can not simultaneously grow, but, on the contrary, its total volume decreased during the crisis. The conclusion can be made one: if somewhere arrives, then in other places it decreases.

Ukrainian Experience

Now most of the talk is about the losses incurred by the ports of the Baltic States, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, in particular Klaipeda, Tallinn and Riga, but in fact this process began with Ukraine, and for a long time. And the point here is not in the "European vector", sanctions and withdrawal of the Crimea to Russia. Even in the days of Kuchma (and it began even with Kravchuk), rates were raised for the transit of goods. The then leadership felt that the more entrepreneurs pay, mostly Russian, the sooner the treasury would be filled. Even in Yeltsin's time, money liked the bill, and the reaction did not keep itself waiting. After the expansion of the Novorossiysk port, the dredging of the dredging works and the increase in the duration of the quay walls, the significance of Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kherson and other important objects of national-scale transport infrastructure in Ukraine has significantly faded. Something, of course, remains, for example, the South, without which we can not do, here is the Priportovy plant, but the usual string of ships in the roadstead have disappeared somewhere.

Port of Riga

During the first quarter, the cargo turnover of the Freeport of Riga experienced a decrease compared to the same period of last year by 4.7 million tons. This figure alone does not say anything, if you do not take into account that there were only 9.1 million tons, then everything is clear, a drop of more than a third. Only from the termination of transshipment of Russian coal losses are estimated at about 140 million euros per year, but this is not the most important article. The total amount of lost benefit is already measured in billions of figures. According to the chairman of the board of the port Andris Ameriks, this decline is explained by the redistribution of cargo flows and the use of rapidly developing Russian terminals. However, it is not only this, of course, but also the general decline in business activity. Russian ports on the Baltic Sea took five hundred thousand tons of cargo, and the reduction reached 1.4 million tons, that is, another 900,000 tons would simply not have been shipped in any case.

Tallinn, Klaipeda, Ventspils

A similar situation develops in other Baltic ports. If we take as an example the Latvian port of Ventspils, even before the start of international sanctions, cargo turnover fell by 9% (26 million tons) in 2014, and by 18% in January-February 2015 compared to 2013. (Up to only 4.8 million tons). In Tallinn, the decrease in transit was 21% (22.4 million tons last year). In Klaipeda, the fall is not so large, 5.6%, although it is not very small (38.4 million tons as of 2015). The main ports, which were redistributed cargo flows, were Primorsk and Ust-Luga, which were modernized and expanded. The need for Ventspils oil terminals has practically disappeared, now there are Russian capacities.

Finally, a crisis!

The total cargo turnover of Russian ports in the period 2014-2015 increased to 676 million tons (by 5.7%), and only for the first quarter of this year already by 4.6%. In physical terms, this means that the increase was 90 million tons.

In this situation, it is not difficult to see that at present the port infrastructure of Russia earns even more than before the crisis, and this fact is very interesting. It turns out that if it were not for the crisis and the sanctions that made it possible to mobilize resources as much as possible, Russian consignors and recipients would continue to sponsor foreign transport infrastructure, as their own country still lacked money. Now the ports on all the seas are actively developing from Nakhodka to Novorossiysk, increasing the capacity and turnover. Indeed, there would be no happiness ...

Political aspect

It is possible that a long treading in the infrastructure port jungle had the same meaning as the purchase of Polish apples, which, unlike pineapples, can easily be grown in Saratov, Voronezh and who else knows in what areas. We just have to take into account in some country what Russia gives us to earn while the foreign policy of the state is friendly, and if that is so, we can manage. As practice showed, such channels of influence were not very effective, at least for now. But this lesson is also for the future, it is difficult to count on someone's prudence. Own development is more important and reliable.