Grain shipment by rail increased by 800k tons

According to Head of JSC "KTZ-Freight Transportation" O. Kulakov, in the current year, 8.9 million tons of grain were shipped (of which 3, 1 million tons in the domestic communication, 5.8 million tons were exported), 3.2 million tons of flour (including 0.8 in the domestic communication) million tons, for export - 2.4 million tons).

In grain equivalent in 2017, the volume of loading of grain and grocery products amounted to 13.5 million tons, which is 6.3% higher than the level of the previous year. Growth in grain equivalent in 2017 compared with 2016 amounted to 805 thousand tons, including for export - 547 thousand tons. The traditional geography of sales markets for Kazakhstani grain and flour remained. These are Uzbekistan (2 million tons), Tajikistan (1 million tons), Afghanistan (2.1 million tons) and Iran (2 million tons).

Shipments in the direction of these countries in grain equivalent increased in the amount of 364 thousand tons. Transport to Uzbekistan grew by 7%, Iran by 26%, Afghanistan by 6%. The main increase in transportation volumes occurred in November-December 2017.

At the same time, in the direction of Iran the structure of the transported nomenclature of grain crops changed: the barley transportation volumes increased by 63% (324 thousand tons), the volume of wheat transportation by 185 thousand tons, which were reoriented to the markets of Central Asia, decreased.

"The peculiarity of this season is also the fact that the record harvests are collected in Russia and Ukraine. This factor influenced the transport and grain markets of Kazakhstan. As a result of the increased demand for grain carriers in the Russian Federation, and the increase in rates for them in the neighboring country, there was an outflow of foreign private operators who had previously worked in the Kazakhstani market", Head of JSC "KTZ-Freight Transportation" O. Kulakov said.

He stressed that due to the difference in the purchase price on the territories bordering the Russian Federation, there was a flow of grain to Kazakhstan, which later was reoriented to the countries of Central Asia. As a result, the demand for grain exports increased, which, in turn, reduced the infrastructure capacity of the Central Asian region.

Thus, the capacity of the infrastructure of Central Asian countries - consumers of Kazakhstani grain and flour, is 600 thousand tons of grain and 200 thousand tons of flour per month.