Russian goods for transportation in Estonia want to replace with Kazakhstani, writes Estonian edition ERR.
According to the publication, the State Railway Company Operail is looking for a partial replacement for goods that it can no longer transport from Russia due to sanctions in Central Asia and China, but the previous volumes cannot be completely replaced, and Russia may decide on blocking such Transportation through their territory. The chairman of the Operail board Raul Toomsalu told the publication that as a result of sanctions against Russia, the volume of cargo transportation by rail of Estonia decreased by more than 60%. This means that many wagons and locomotives are idle. Currently, Operail is trying to find replacing goods in China and the countries of Central Asia – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to use an idle rolling stock. “Kazakhstan, perhaps, has the biggest potential [among these countries] in terms of economic interest in transporting their goods through the Baltic corridor and Finland,” he said.
Toomsalu also noted that coal could be transported from Kazakhstan, but in Estonia there are no more freight terminals for transshipment of coal in large quantities. In addition, Russia may at any time decide not to miss the wagons heading to Estonia, by its railway, the publication notes. “There is a very specific example. A few months ago, Latvia transported quite a lot of Kazakhstan coal, and it ended suddenly when Russia made such a decision,” Tomsalu said.