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Liquid gas transportation in tank containers from railway remote sites becomes more and more claimed in Russia. Alexander Fokin, the CEO of Spectransgarant (Rail Garant Group), told in his interview to Argus about features of this kind of transportation.

 - Earlier, Spectransgarant transported LPG in addition to liquefied hydrocarbon gas transportation, what was the reason you took decision to withdraw from this segment?

We stopped transporting LPG two and half years ago. We dealt with Progress with Novosergievskaya station and transported LPG in tank containers from Zaikino gas processing plant. A decision was made to withdraw tank containers involved in this project, because our strategic partner, SIBUR-Trans needed urgently for additional fleet, and it was impossible to purchase required quantity of tank containers for the period specified.

 - Now, the main STG activities are the LHG and petrochemicals transportation. Does your company have other customers for liquefied gas transportation in addition to SIBUR-Holding?

Yes, we do, but their capacities are very small as compared to SIBUR Holding. Concerning petrochemical transportation, this year, the SIBUR Holding traffic volume will reach 15 % of the total STG traffic volume. These are alcohols, glycols and styrene.
Once SIBUR Holding purchased Akrilat plant, in August, we also started transporting butyl acrilate.

 - Do you provide SIBUR Holding with transportation of liquefied gas manufactured by Nyagangazpererabotky only?

Yes, we do. And additionally we transport butadiene from Togliatticaoutchouc to Voronezhsintezcaoutchouc. In principle, we are now discussing an opportunity to transport butadiene from other plants.

 - Does Spectransgarant sale liquefied gas?

Today, on principle, we don’t resale any products, though such proposals are received periodically.

 - Recently you have entered into a contract for the construction of 151 gas tank containers. Will this fleet be involved into liquefied gas transportation from Nyagangazpererabotky?

Not only for this, about 100 tank containers will be involved into the increase of gas transportation from Nyagan Station, and the rest of them will transport butadiene.

 - Where do you place the order for gas tank container manufacture?

We do it at Kemerovokhimmash plant that is affiliated in SDSMASH Holding, as well as at Uralkriomash.

 - Is Uralkriomash affiliated in Uralvagonzavod?

No, it isn’t. This is an independent plant, just it is located at Uralvagonzavod premises.

 - Does Uralvagonzavod itself manufacture tank containers?

When in 2008 we encountered a necessity to increase the gas tank container fleet, our company started searching for plants that potentially were able to manufacture or once had manufactured tank containers.

We preferred SDS MASH and we started building tank containers in Kemerovo.

Today we are considering various options for the interaction between car manufacturers and are always ready to negotiate.

- What is the design life of tank containers?
The tank container design life is 20 years. But taking into account additional diagnosis of tank containers and with successful strength structural test the tank container lifetime may be extended by Russian Maritime Register.

The procedure includes a list of mandatory preventive maintenance to be performed under technologic supervision of an inspector of Maritime Register who carries out acceptance and issues a final findings regarding tank container availability.

In Russia, all the activity related to tank containers is regulated by Maritime Register. If we purchase imported tank containers having Lloyd or Veritas certification acknowledged in the world, we in any circumstances need for their certification from Russian Maritime

Register with the subsequent reception of expert’s report.

- Is there any reason to purchase imported gas tank containers?

No one imported gas tank container is available in the current STG fleet. There is not such a great number of gas tank containers as compared to chemical ones.

Recently I met with Kevin Singh, the commercial director of Fort Vale Company, that is one of the world leaders in production of valves, we discussed prospective of development of cooperation between our companies. According to him, in whole, 300 gas tank containers were manufactured in the world in 2011, without taking into account Russian tank containers.

 - When you are placing an order for the manufacture of tank containers, do you stipulate what valves are required to be installed?

Sure, we stipulate it obligatory what valves have to be installed on a tank container. There were cases, when we purchased valves ourselves, including those from Fort Vale, and delivered them to a tank container manufacturer.

For example, when we started transporting butadiene, we had tank containers fitted with valves manufactured by Uralvagonzavod.

During the year, under the warranties of manufacturer, we more than once returned valves back to the plant for the improvement. Because that rubber grade that they selected to make seals lost elasticity in several actuations. Developers performed multiple studies in plant and in laboratories, but the reason of it was not determined.

Having obtained unsuccessful experience with these valves, finally we made a decision to use valves from Fort Vale.

 - Is it true that Fort Vale valves are less expensive than those manufactured in Russia?

The valve cost manufactured by Fort Vale, taking into account their delivery in Russia, does not exceed the Russian product cost. The only disadvantage is the period of manufacture and delivery to the Russian Federation.

- Do the English deliver valves fitted with their rubber?

They use Teflon. We attempted to find the similar material in Russia but failed.

 - Nevertheless, what is an average tank container cost and how has it changed recently?

Today, the average tank container cost is about 1.1-1.2 mln. rubles. If a contract tank container batch is small prices will be possibly higher. Considering that we have entered into a contract for 100 tank containers metallurgists will sale metal to manufacturers with a rebate.

There are multiple details when manufacturing tank containers that affect the final price. But I think that we have certain price benefits as a large customer.

 - You are almost the only purchasers of tank containers in Russia. Who else deals with containers?

TransLogistic transports liquefied gas for TNK-BP, they operate about 400 tank containers.

Some time, we also cooperated with TNK-BP regarding the transportation of LPG from Novosergievskaya station. About 90 our tank containers were involved for this project. But then, tank containers had to be used to meet demands of our strategic partner SIBUR-Trans.

 - Has Monolith Group ever requested you for the transportation of liquefied gas? Now, this group is implementing two projects for the recovery of associated petroleum gas (APG) in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area.

As far as I know, Monolith builds tank containers at Uralkhimmash. We are discussing an opportunity for cooperation and ready for mutually beneficial partnership.

 - Is the Spectransgarant’s tank container fleet the property of the company or does it operate under leasing?

Of course, the larger part of the fleet is leased, there are no secrets. Today, the company has 962 (83 %) of leased gas tank containers and 192 (17 %) of owned ones of the total 1,154 gas tank containers.

 - It is turned out that there is no competition in the tank container gas transportation market, because there are only two operators: these are Spectransgarant and TransLogistic.

Another operators are Tank Yard and Sibur-Trans. Tank Yard also takes part in the liquefied gas transportation for Sibur Holding. They have fleet numbered 250-280 pieces and Sibur-Trans has about 200 pieces of tank containers.

 - What is your monthly liquefied gas traffic volume?

By the turn of the year, the monthly shipment amount is supposed to reach 25,000 metric tons.

 - Where do you deliver product by region?

We have a large delivery geography: Central Region, South Ural, Western Siberia and Trans-Ural. The main regions for the deliveries are Nizhny Novgorod Region, Vladimir Region, Moscow Region, Samara Region, Chelyabinsk Region, Tyumen Region and Kurgan Region.

 - The Company planned to construct their own depot in Nizhny Novgorod Region. What is the progress of this project?

We will implement it obligatory. This turned out to be not so easy, this process has been delayed.

The Holding is growing, new projects appear. The depot is urgently required for the repair, re-examinations, washing and degassing taking into account the fact that the chemical tank fleet will exceed gas tank fleet this year.

- And what is the cost of the depot construction?

We plan to keep within 300 mln. rubles.

 - In what countries have you transported gas in tank containers?

To Ukraine only. 

 - What is the liquefied gas traffic volume you transport monthly for Sibur Holding to Ukraine?

Shipping is periodic depending on market demands, in amount up to 1,000 metric tons.

 - Do you know that Eurotrans also plans to engage in the tank container transportation?

Yes, I know. This concerns chemicals goods rather than gases.

 - And do you transport compressed methane?

No. It is impossible with that fleet we have, other tank containers are required.

 - What are, to your mind, the main advantages of tank containers?

The use of tank containers is very important for such locations where railways are not available as, e.g. in Nyagan. In addition, thanks to tank containers, the product transportation geography is widening significantly: they can be discharged at any station that has permission, and to do this it is not required any gas filling station (GFS). So, to my opinion, in the nearest future, the Russian transport market faces containerization of the liquefied hydrocarbon gases/petrochemical goods transportation.