Russian Railways has proposed to President Vladimir Putin to eliminate eastward coal export quotas for all regions except Kuzbass, Russian media reported.

Currently, more than 30% of Russian Railways' revenues are said to come from the eastern direction. According to the agreement with the mining regions, about 60% of the capacity of the “Eastern Polygon” railroad is used for transportation of coal. On the other hand, the profitability of non-coal cargo transportation is 0.8 times higher than that of coal.

According to Russian Railways, if the agreement with the coal-mining region is maintained, Russian Railways may not be able to transport about 15 million tons of high-income cargoes to the East, which would result in a loss of 25 billion rubles in 2025.

Russian Railways proposes to extend the agreement with the Kemerovo region only until 2025. At the same time, it is proposed to extend the quota of 55.3 million tons to transport other goods in addition to coal.

The Russian president has reportedly instructed the relevant authorities to discuss the proposal.

At the end of 2023, Russian Railways signed a package of agreements with a number of Russian regions setting the main parameters for exporting coal to the Far East.

According to the agreement, in 2024 Russian Railways needs to ensure transportation of exported coal including 54.1 million tons in Kuzbass, 26.3 million tons in Yakutia, 8.5 million tons in Buryatia, 6.5 million tons in the Republic of Khakassia, 3.3 million tons in Irkutsk and 650,000 tons in Tuva.

Article Source：sxcoal.com