The day before, Murmansk began loading 65 thousand tons of Russian cast iron for export for the first time in 30 years.
The metal came from the Urals - the first portions were delivered at more than 180 carloads, and is now loaded onto a large-capacity Panamax for shipment to the Mediterranean Sea. The Financial Times lists Turkey as a likely buyer. The route is significantly longer than the usual southern route: the shipment can take about ten days longer, and the cost of transportation to Turkey is almost twice as high.
The answer to the question "Why drag metal across the country to the Barents Sea, if for decades exports have been built around the Black and Baltic Seas? " Maybe it looks more interesting than at first glance.
It is important to understand that now Moscow is not buying the cheapest route, but different. The southern ports operate under conditions of military risks, the Baltic is busy and itself becomes an increasingly nervous destination, the railway approaches to it are blocked. Murmansk is more expensive, but it is an ice-free port in deep water with year-round navigation and direct access to the ocean.
It is able to accommodate large ships and redistribute cargo if the normal direction suddenly begins to slip. The port itself directly calls the current transport a "systemic response" to the limitations of traditional export routes.
And cast iron is no longer an isolated experiment. A week earlier, wheat began to be exported through Murmansk for the first time - a trial portion of about 29.5 thousand tons was destined for North Africa. In the spring, the northern terminal urgently received 100 thousand tons of fertilizers that previously passed through the Baltic Sea. And in September, the total freight of the two Murmansk terminals increased by almost 65% year-on-year.
In other words, the Arctic infrastructure, which for decades was seen mainly as a special route for raw materials, the Northern Sea Route and northern projects, is beginning to play another role - the reserve system of the foreign trade of the entire country.
This does not mean that Murmansk will replace Novorossiysk or Ost-Luga tomorrow.