The Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport is planning to construct multimodal hubs on Northern Russian rivers. Along with Rosatom, the agency aims to open logistics hubs on the Ob, Irtysh, Lena, and Yenisei rivers. What is the purpose of expanding the river transport network in the North?

In general, the Northern Sea Route (NSR) is a project oriented towards the export of goods. Over the last few years, the plans for the NSR have grown rapidly. As a reminder, this year's turnover is estimated at 71 million tonnes of cargo turnover, while last year's was 36.2 million. The target for 2030 stands at a grandiose total of 150 million tonnes.

The problem in achieving these targets is that there needs to be both a product for export and the necessary transportation infrastructure and hubs to deliver the desired volume of goods. While the issue of vessel availability is always under discussion, with a chronic shortage of ships, and deserves another article, the planned hubs on Siberian rivers might actually kill two birds with one stone.

Firstly, the hubs will directly connect the ‘continent’ with its numerous production bases to the NSR, which should speed up the process of supplying the trade route. Secondly, they will allow for the greater storage of products, making all logistical processes more stable and regular.

Domestic development in the North is often neglected, but this initiative might create new opportunities for increasing cargo turnover. Among other benefits is the fact that hubs will bring in investment and will help to expand the sector specialisation of the Russian Arctic cities. 

However, much will still depend on the exact locations of the hubs. The officials have not yet provided such information. To what extent will the hubs make use of existing infrastructure? Will the new hubs attract domestic development of the Arctic, or will they continue to focus on export? The Agency also mentions a shortage of stevedores (freight companies) in the region; who will fulfil this role in the newly built hubs? Will it be state-owned enterprises or private companies? These questions remain unanswered.

In 2023-2024, Russia is demonstrating a surprisingly strong interest in river ports. In addition to the Northern plans, there are new projects underway in the Moscow Region, Tatarstan, the Samara region, as well as along the Amur River in the East. This sudden wave of activity may be linked to a 2023 law in Russia that enables private companies to purchase river ports through auctions and proposes a clearer privatisation procedure. 

This is all likely to be a joint effort aimed to return the river transport infrastructure into the economy of the country and do it as soon as possible. The law proposes to buy the objects under two conditions: the specialty of the property cannot be changed, and the port should be restored in five years. After all, river transportation remains one of the cheapest and environmentally friendly options to supply the domestic market in general, and in the Arctic—the NSR. The Arctic Century will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as new hubs are constructed.

Recently, we mentioned one of the Soviet transport hubs that was responsible for a significant portion of timber turnover in the North—Igarka. Read the article to find out how the economy of this town was connected to a so-called Jack London Effect.

The Editorial Board of the Arctic Century

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