JSC "KTZH-Freight transportation" will raise tariffs for locomotive traction services to the level of the inflation rate

At NCE RK "Atameken" was held a regular meeting on the activities of the national rail carrier. Under the chairmanship of the Deputy Chairman of the Board of NCE Yuliya Yakupbaeva were discussed issues related to the abolition of price control at the market of rent and operating of wagon cars, lack of rolling stock, tariffs for railway transportation of socially important goods within the republic in 2017.

Yuliya Yakupbaeva noted that after the discussion at the site of NCE and KTZH in the framework of the meeting under the leadership of the First Deputy Prime Minister Askar Mamin was reached a compromise on increasing the tariff for locomotive traction. Taking into account the views and suggestions of business growth rates for this type of activity of KTZH will not exceed the inflation rate, i.e. 7%.

Executive Director of the Association of Legal Entities "Republican Association of Mining and Metallurgical Enterprises", the chairman of the Committee of the mining and metallurgical industry of the Presidium of NCE Nikolai Radostovets stated that another major problem in the country is the lack of wagons.

"Today there is a serious short supply of coal. And if we can cover it at the domestic market somehow, on the external, for example, in Kyrgyzstan in December, we have shipped 31-35% of the declared volume. I am afraid that many of the mining and metallurgical companies simply can’t transport their goods, unless KTZH thinks how to transport it ", - said Nikolay Radostovets.

According to him, in 2017 at the market for the timely transportation of cargoes, 7 to 25 thousand wagon cars are missing.

He suggested to address to the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan for assistance in resolving the situation.

"Non-transported cargo - it is primarily manufactured goods for which it is necessary to pay the salaries of the people, the taxes to the budget, and then also incur penalties. This is an unprecedented matter. Of course, KTZH will take steps to bring wagon card from other sources. But I would like large companies to think about purchasing wagon cars. And in an address to the Prime Minister also pledged to invest in own rolling stock ", - said N. Radostovets.

To do this, he said, the government should consider subsidizing the production and purchase of freight cars, as it is done in neighboring Russia. However, he stressed that buying freight cars make sense only for large companies with long-term volumes of cargo transportation; KTZH has to ensure the rolling stock for others.

The second thing that you need to speak about, it is the regulation of the work of wagon operators. According to the expert, there is a need to introduce licensing for this activity, since many operating companies today – are just small intermediaries between KTZH and shippers, who do not have their own fleet of wagon cars and tend to shift the responsibility for transportation to the national railway carrier.

"The third point - transportation rules. We offer within a month to finalize and to submit them for approval. They must raise responsibility of not only the railway company, but also shippers, intermediaries", - said Nikolai Radostovets.

In general, the expert believes that one should not blame only KTZH in this situation. All participants in the transportation process must think about how to make better use of the existing fleet of wagons, and the fund "Samuryk-Kazyna" should raise funds or help Kazakhstan Temir Zholy in obtaining soft loans for the retrofitting of rolling stock. "This will determine whether local companies will be able to increase exports or not", - said Radostovets.

In turn, the president of JSC "NC" Kazakhstan Temir Zholy" Kanat Alpysbayev noted that an active outflow of freight cars now goes throughout the CIS. He estimates that this year alone is expected to write off about 120 thousand cars.

"Among the members of the Eurasian Economic Space the Russian fleet is dominant - it is 87%, Kazakhstan holds 10%, the rest are from other republics of Belarus and other. Transportation wagon fleet of the Republic of Kazakhstan includes the CIS fleet, mostly Russian and Ukrainian. But now there are changes that affect the situation of rolling stock. According to the norms of technical regulation, it is completely banned on extending the life of cars, as a result 200 thousand wagon cars are out of work. Thus, we are talking about an obvious deficit of the park across the CIS ", - said Kanat Alpysbayev.

He stressed that over the past four years, working in a surplus of freight wagons, the participants of the transportation process simply lost the habit to use them effectively, wagons turnover increased by 1.5 times.

Kanat Alpysbayev also spoke about the responsibility of forwarders of wagon cars.

"Today, the railway has 700 contracts with freight forwarders, of which not more than 50 workers, and who are the other? We have absolutely no legal restrictions that we do not enter into a contract with them. So I urge you to pay attention to it ", - said the President of KTZH.

As a negative example, he cited the situation with one of the thermal power plant, which due to non-compliance with contractual relations on the part of the forwarder was left with four-day supply of coal. "Thermal power plant has entered into a contract with the freight forwarding company, which means that freight forwarding company is liable, not the railroad company. If you entered into a contract, then please claim from the participants of the transportation process to execute their civil liabilities", - said Kanat Alpysbayev.

According to him, each participant of the transportation process must be liable, and not to shift all the responsibility on the railway company. Therefore, we should clearly define who is responsible for what.

Summing up the meeting, Yuliya Yakupbaeva noted the need to address the relationship between participants of this process. To do this, the business must be actively involved in the discussion and solution of problems in the sphere of cargo transportation. The deputy chairman promised that all the raised questions on the part of shippers will be sent to KTZH, after which they will be reflected in the draft appeal to the national government.