Russian Grain Exports for 2017

[Klause]

For the record, Canada ships about 40-41MMT.

Grain throughput at Russian ports in 2017 boomed after record harvest
London (Platts)--18 Jan 2018 715 am EST/1215 GMT

Grain throughput at Russian ports hit the highest growth rate of all the commodities last year following the record harvest, the transport ministry said.

Throughput grew 34.7% with 47.879 million mt handled by Russian ports in 2017 compared with 35.553 million mt in 2016.

Russia harvested 139.3 million mt of grain last year, 14.7 million mt higher on the year, beating 1978's record harvest of 127 million mt.

The main bulk of the volumes handled by ports -- 42.608 million mt -- headed to export, up 29.5% on the year. In 2016, 32.905 million mt of grain was exported.

In late November, Russia's agriculture minister Alexander Tkachev said Russia was set to export around 45 million mt of grains in the 2017-18 marketing year, of which 35 million mt would be wheat.

In port throughput, grain was followed by coal and coke, whose throughput grew 13.4% to 154.476 million mt -- of which 152.581 million mt was exported.

Crude oil throughput rose 11.1% to 253.226 million mt, of which 177.377 million mt went for export -- up 4.4% on the year.

Russia's throughput increased by 34.7%


Could you imagine Canada's infrastructure system - inland elevators, railways, and shipping ports being able to handle that kind of capacity surge? Nope. never in a century.

Russia isn't done... 22 new ship load facilities will come online in the next two years. Thousands of KM of rail track are being built.

[bucket]

Yup ...our graincos and railways here handed the Russians our business on a silver platter. ...

Isn't that wonderful....

Shareholders couldn't be happier...

[bgmb]

Holy **** Klause you are on fire tonight.

You think Russia doesnt have logistical issues? My god they are basically a third world country in places. Guys have to fence off their yards and have 24 h security. Plus they have to make sure their combine operator isnt dumping a hopper in uncle Borats truck which is sneaking out of the bush every once and awhile.

Anyways A rail line in russia is not going to affect Joe farmer in Saskatchewan much. Chinese consumers dont even want to eat their own food its so bad. Hey canola exports of oil and seed keep growing to china we must be doing something terribly wrong.

[Klause]

Holy **** Klause you are on fire tonight.

You think Russia doesnt have logistical issues? My god they are basically a third world country in places. Guys have to fence off their yards and have 24 h security. Plus they have to make sure their combine operator isnt dumping a hopper in uncle Borats truck which is sneaking out of the bush every once and awhile.

Anyways A rail line in russia is not going to affect Joe farmer in Saskatchewan much. ****ing chinese consumers dont even want to eat their own food its so bad. Hey canola exports of oil and seed keep growing to china we must be doing something terribly wrong.

I just want to say that this website and the comments made on it are read by many in the grain trade, and many in the food trade.

Asia is an extremely important trading partner to Canada, as such I, along with the vast majority of Canadian producers which to apologize for ignorant comments such as the one above.

We value the Chinese people, and their country, for their trade partnerships and thank them for their continued business.

The comments of one misguided producer DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT reflect the values, thoughts, or feelings of the rest of the industry.


bgmb, some education in international trade, internet etiquette (esp. when it comes to our trading partners), and a general understanding of world markets is in order.

[bgmb]

I just want to say that this website and the comments made on it are read by many in the grain trade, and many in the food trade.

Asia is an extremely important trading partner to Canada, as such I, along with the vast majority of Canadian producers which to apologize for ignorant comments such as the one above.

We value the Chinese people, and their country, for their trade partnerships and thank them for their continued business.

The comments of one misguided producer DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT reflect the values, thoughts, or feelings of the rest of the industry.


bgmb, some education in international trade, internet etiquette (esp. when it comes to our trading partners), and a general understanding of world markets is in order.

Klause I was told that by an international trader who actually sells food products into China. The Chinese consumer would rather eat Canadian food over Chinese food.

[bgmb]

Klause it gets pretty old pretty fast when you come on here and tell all us dummies in Canada (as far as I know you still live here too) how stupid we are and how much better it is everywhere else in the world. I am up for discussion but not really keen on the constant bashing of Canada. Then you get all high and mighty when someone is critical of Chinese food I was simply pointing out (in a slightly ignorant way) that maybe Canada has a safer/better product vs. some other countries.... Remember the melamine baby formula incident? how would you feel if your little guy ate that stuff?

[Klause]

Klause it gets pretty old pretty fast when you come on here and tell all us dummies in Canada (as far as I know you still live here too) how stupid we are and how much better it is everywhere else in the world. I am up for discussion but not really keen on the constant bashing of Canada. Then you get all high and mighty when someone is critical of Chinese food I was simply pointing out (in a slightly ignorant way) that maybe Canada has a safer/better product vs. some other countries.... Remember the melamine baby formula incident? how would you feel if your little guy ate that stuff?

Grain trade is an international business. You cannot plan for or operate in an industry either the amount of competition we have world wide without an understanding of what our competitors are doing.


We also can't fix our shortcomings if we don't identify them.


Learn. Evolve. Adapt. Or perish.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

We travelled through large area of the black sea region in Russia last summer.
Saw a few shiny new bins at elevators, otherwise almost all of the elevators are soviet era concrete affairs. They may be modern on the inside(don't know), but are falling apart on the outside. Have not seen or heard of any new port loading facilities in the Azov/black sea region.

Farmers are hauling grain directly to elevators across non-existent rural roads, then through traffic jams countless miles long, we waited in them as well, too many grain trucks to count. Everything from single axle body trucks to double trailers.
One farmer we met does have on farm storage, sheds not bins.
Yes, their railroad infrastructure is far ahead of ours. Dual tracks almost everywhere, concrete ties, continuous rails, nearly all electrified. Yet in spite of that, whenever we ride on passenger trains, they spend more time on sidings waiting for another train to go by than they do moving, I doubt the grain trains get any greater priority. Grain cars are much smaller than ours, never saw a freight train nearly as long as what we have here.

Things have improved drastically since the commodity boom, and investment is being made, but it is not nearly as rosy as may be made out to be.

Farm yards have armed guards at the gates, no equipment or fuel is left in the field unguarded.

Officials have to be bribed every step of the way.

No crop insurance(government sponsored at least). No other safety nets.

High double digit interest rates.

Inflation and sanctions make imported machinery or technology prohibitively expensive again.

Contrary to popular belief, I've yet to see significant acres not already in production, at least not in productive soil areas. And judging by the tremendous crops we saw last summer, many are already pouring the inputs to them, there isn't huge room for improvement. there is however a large void in the livestock industry, especially cattle, lots of rangeland unused or underused. Not sure how much may be suitable for grain. I haven't been further east, so can't speak to what is happening there.

[blackpowder]

Our local terminal getting a unit train every week. Loaded in 9 hours and gone next day. And yes I live in Canada.

One percieved advantage those other countries have to me is, no special interest groups blocking infrastructure building.
Over there it might be sparse rule of law as the handicap. But if govt wants a right of way it seems to go.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Our local terminal getting a unit train every week. Loaded in 9 hours and gone next day. And yes I live in Canada.

One percieved advantage those other countries have to me is, no special interest groups blocking infrastructure building.
Over there it might be sparse rule of law as the handicap. But if govt wants a right of way it seems to go.

Exactly, that is one huge advantage most of our competitors have. It might not be pleasant if you are the one receiving the overpass or nuclear waste dump in your back yard, but at least society and the economy can benefit. Our society is quickly reaching the point where no further progress or growth is possible, or at least not worth the effort. The pendulum has swung much too far as usual.

[farmaholic]

Klause started alot of threads pointing out how uncompetitive Canada will become in world markets and I just chose this tread to make this point. If Canadaian producers didn't have every link of the chain on either side of us TRYING to bleed us dry.....we would be more than competitive. There's tonnes of money in Ag.....i just wish I could keep more of what I "generate".

We have an economic environment that enables them to take as much as possible....what ever the market will bear without strangling the goose that lays the golden eggs. World prices for fert produced in our back yard....them pocketing the fictitious freight costs. Fuasrium " suppressing" chemistry for the price of "control". Current fuel prices near the highs of when crude was peaking a while ago. Machinery costs and parts in the stratosphere, ad nauseam.....

We can compete if the boot gets lifted off our throats.....GASP!!!!

[bucket]

Blackpowder

That's great but the whole system should be working the way you describe....

[blackpowder]

I respect and understand that comment bucket. 700 kms further away from ocean costs you more.
Please correct if over simplifying. And of course the RRs have an interest only in themselves.
Every time I go past a nearby canola crusher. It has miles of new looking cars sitting at its disposal. Every potash or oil train going by my yard has shiny looking cars. Lots of seacans etc. too.
And then there's the grain cars.....
100 years of history put us here. I don't have any answers. Except maybe to say somebodys gotta be buying a shit ton of cars someday. And it will take time. And your right, a political will from all sides.

[bucket]

Blackpowder

IMHO a lot of decisions made are based on the past not the future.

Trend line yields like they do in States would help ensure our infrastructure is built for the future. **** sakes Brad wall shitcan the grain car Corp when in reality he should have looked at it as a growth industry.....

Grain cos. ...and not to defend them regularly but will here....lose all their efficiencies when they load a train in 12 hours and have the train sit there for a week....doesn't matter the location...the rules have to change.

More later....

[northfarmer]

We face significant competitive threats from improved production and logistics capacity from Eastern Europe and South America.

I was in South America a dozen years ago and was in awe of how they moved the vast quantities of crops to port over back roads. What they will do with modern roads and rail would be scary.

The "new silk road" from Great Britain and to China by water and land logistics was talked about by a number of big picture analysts at Farmtech last week and is for real.

Yes we have a couple new terminal facilities and upgrades at the coast. On the other hand improved regs and legislation for rail are held up and watered down, and we have a prevailing anti development bias in most provinces and major urban centers. The prevailing policy seems to be shut it down and tax the shit out of it.

We will have big competitive issues facing the next generation and this one, and thank you Klaus for pointing fingers at the issue.