OREANDA-NEWS. It can be added the payment of expenses for sea freight to the subsidies for the delivery of cars produced in the Far East, to the central regions of Russia, by rail. Minister of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov, informed about it the newspaper “Vedomosti”. Ministry of Industry will prepare a relevant document by mid-year, said the director of the department of the Ministry of Transport, Alexander Morozov. This approach will allow automakers, depending on the situation, to choose the most optimal route, plus it will be increased the competition on the Transport, explains Mr.Manturov: "Maybe the tariff will change."

The new approach does not require an increase of the total compensation, according to the Minister. In 2015 for these purposes in the federal budget it was allocated 3.2 billion Rubles (compensation of rail fare). According to the calculations of Ministry of Industry and Trade, this amount will be enough to transport 39,000 vehicles - 82 thousand rubles for the car in average. Basically cars are trasnported on special platforms. Another way – is the transportation of vehicle in the container, but it is more expensive. For example, from Vladivostok to Moscow by rail it is worth about 120 thousand rubles, the path will take 10 days, says one of the operators.

Compensation for the delivery of cars by sea, as well as in the case of transport by rail, will be received by the manufacturer, says Mr.Morozov. In the Far East cars are produced by joint ventures "Sollers" with Mitsui ("Sollers-Bussan" produces Toyota Land Cruiser Prado) and Mazda (“Mazda Sollers Manufacturing RUS" produces Mazda cars and by contractual scheme - SsangYong). Totally in 2014 on both JVs it was assembled about 68 thousand vehicles, it was transported by railway about 50 thousand units. This year, the forecast traffic volume is at the level of 40-50 thousand cars, said a representative of "Sollers".

"The idea to extend the types of transport vehicles, which are taken to subsidize, appeared the last year and it was due to the fact that the cost of sea freight from Vladivostok to St. Petersburg was [the last year] less in average by 25-30% than the price of rail transport cars from the Far East to the European part of Russia", - said the representative of "Sollers". In his view, "the existence of subsidies from the federal budget did not stimulate Railways to pursue a more flexible pricing policy - in particular, to consider the issue of granting discounts within the permitted tariff corridor”. The CEO of Infranews, Alexei Bezborodov, recalls that in Russia there are no shipping companies that transport vehicles by sea. The main players in this market – are the Japanese and Norwegian companies. According to him, to shop the cars from the Far East to the center of Russian by sea would be more difficult, expensive and longer than by the railway - 1.5 months versus 1.5 weeks to Moscow, for example. In addition, rail transportation is more convenient for distribution - at the expense of shipping in the cities along the route, the expert adds.