The Russian major producer of non-ferrous metals builds its own fleet. Currently, all cargoes of Norilsk Nickel along the Northern Sea Rout from Taimyr Peninsula to the town of Murmansk are transported by the Murmansk Ocean Company. The volume of this carriage under Arctic conditions is pretty significant and reaches approximately 1.2 million tonnes a year thus bringing the ocean company good profits, which actually amount to one fifth of its entire revenue. However, Norilsk Nickel itself is not satisfied with the shipment service: what with that and the fleet involved is pretty old, and freight costs are overrated (last year the freight costs grew by as much as 30 %).

Despite the colossal slump on the market in the 1990s Russia’s tractor-building industry managed to survive and now it keeps raising rates of the production growth. In 2004 the tractor-building volume increased 7.5% to 8,700 tractors. Every third of them is meant for industrial purposes. They successfully compete with foreign models and even succeed in pressing them somewhat on the market, which is proved by the reduced share of imported tractors of the most mass-produced types.

Vladimir Putin
President of the Russian Federation

Chairwoman of Baosteel Group M-me Xie Qihua granted an interview to Eurasian Metals.