Eastern Siberia Railways subsidiary of JSC TransContainer began regular container timber freight, informs Dmitry Kutorkin, head of the subsidiary.

After the success of a similar container freight route from Lesosibirsk to Alexandria, which started its operations in October, at Krasnoyarsk Railways, many consignors in Eastern Siberia Railways regions began to show interest in JSC TransContainer services. In particular, potential clients noted higher safety of transported goods and preservation of timber characteristics during the transportation. «In October, leaders of Eastern Siberia Railways subsidiary of JSC TransContainer conducted negotiations with three key lumber factories of the region, namely JSC Kata, LLC Pik-2005 and JSC Ust-Ilymsky Lumber Saw-Mill. Over the period of 9 months in the year 2008 they shipped more than 200,000 tonnes of timber. We proposed to these companies an opportunity to dispatch their timber in bulk containers; they expressed their interest in mutual cooperation and asked us to give our price quotations», said Dmitry Kutorkin at the final meeting of the company management in Irkutsk.

During several recent months, the subsidiary staff has been regularly meeting with potential timber consignors from the Irkutsk Region to discuss top-priority cooperation issues, in particular, calculation of rates for inland and international transportation.

«To replace carload freight by container transportation, many companies will have to update their operation technologies and invest in technical re-equipment, and this is why they require that JSC TransContainer guarantee the requisite amount of empty containers. But what is even more important, especially at the initial stage of our cooperation, is that they are offered interesting freight tariffs. It is no secret that while opting for alternative freight methods many companies are guided only by the cost of transportation services», underscored Dmitry Kutorkin.

Nevertheless, the success of Lesosibirsk - Alexandria route allowed for immediate use of the same, already tested, technologies in the neighboring region. From November to December, as many as 200 timber containers were dispatched from stations of Eastern Siberia Railways subsidiary of JSC TransContainer. They left for various parts in Russia and the CIS countries as well as Egypt, Slovakia and Japan. «Today we can say that Eastern Siberia Railways subsidiary of JSC TransContainer is gradually increasing its share in the Irkutsk Region timber transportation market», stressed Dmitry Kutorkin.

JSC TRANSCONTAINER PRESS CENTER