Belarus’ First Deputy PM on export and transshipment of goods
Belarus was able to compensate for all those port capacities that were lost because of sanctions pressure – as Belarus’ First Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Snopkov told reporters after the meeting with the President
“We can now load 12 million tonnes per year. The essence of today’s meeting was to work out those options that will improve the efficiency of fertiliser transshipment in Russian ports. The government has made its proposals. The President set the task to finalise them and reach the best options minimising the cost of logistics,” said the First Deputy PM.
He also stressed that today ‘all companies have begun to play the ‘volumes over prices’ game’, “Upon the instruction of the President, we have been doing this since last year. Moreover, the production cost of Belaruskali allows this. The company is estimated to be second worldwide and we can compete on price for a long time. But the issue of logistics becomes key. In order to effectively sell fertilisers, ensure the profitability of the manufacturer and, accordingly, payments to the budget, we need optimal and efficient logistics. We will continue to do this. I think that in the near future we will submit to the President our vision of organising a port infrastructure in the medium term to maximise the optimisation of the cost of transshipment of fertilisers. We have a product that is in demand on a global scale, and we will take it to where we will see the minimum cost [of logistics and transshipment].”
According to Nikolai Snopkov, this year it is planned to sell 8 million tonnes of fertilisers to foreign markets, “At the same time, Belaruskali operates with a profit and ensures its investment programme. Today we are ranked second in the world in terms of production of potash fertilisers. This suggests that the sales system is built efficiently, despite the increased costs.”
