Page 97 - RusRPTSept19

from Russian to Georgian airports imposed by Moscow as relations deteriorated. Georgian Black Sea resorts are traditionally popular destinations for Russians, and travellers managed to get around the ban by flying from Russia to Georgia via airports in nearby countries such as Armenia and Turkey. Also among the top destinations were fellow former Soviet countries Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as France, Germany and Spain.
9.1.10 Utilities sector news
Russian utility major InterRAO received 28% of the contracts for modernisation of the thermal power plants by the 2025, making it the largest recipient of contacts during this round of the state capacity modernisation drive, followed by Gazprom, Unipro, Enel Russia, Reuters and Kommersant daily reported on September 2 citing the preliminary results of the tender. A total of 41GW worth of capacity has been approved for modernisation at a cost of up to RUB1.9 trillion ($28.4bn) as part of the reform. In the 2025 tender for the modernisation of 4.14GW, 9.95GW worth of bids were submitted, with InterRAO getting 1.125GW worth of modernisation contracts. Unipro (controlled by Uniper) got 830MW, Gazprom 650MW, OGK-2 470MW, and Enel Russia 400MW. Other smaller projects were won by T Plus, TGK-2, Quadra, Tatenergo, TGK-16, IrkutskEnergo. In the previous tender round for projects in 2022-2024 worth 11GW, the independent oil major Lukoil, utility holding T Plus, coal major SUEK, and North-Western regional utility major TGK-1 could be the main beneficiaries. At the pilot tender for the same period InterRAO also got 5.13GW worth of contracts.
9.1.11 Metallurgy & mining sector news
9.1.12 Transport sector news
Russian gold production rose 12.9% on the year and 10.6% on the month
in July, the Federal State Statistics Service said in a report on August 14. In January–July, gold production grew 21.5% on the year.
In August, RZD managed to keep total volumes flat, at 109mnt, despite a 2.3% decline in coal volumes, the most prevalent railway cargo. Total cargo turnover, however, lost 2% y/y, and now stands at 214bn t-km, due to i) changing logistics leading to shortening legs, and ii) a rebalancing of the cargo portfolio away from coal toward construction materials. Against the backdrop of a weak coal market, demand for gondolas is slackening, pushing the gondola lease rate 3% m/m downward to RUB1,750/day. Meantime, the oil tank car segment has been enjoying 3% per month in leasing rates.
Coal. Market sentiment remains negative for Russian exporters, who are on the borderline of profitability with European coal prices losing 43% YTD. The eastward direction has fallen 38% YTD. The declines have forced volumes down 2% y/y to 30mnt in August.
Oil & oil products. The tank car segment was flat y/y in August after the one- off decline in April-June caused by largescale repairs at refineries. We expect the segment to remain stable until YE19.
Building materials. After two years of declines caused by a shortage of
97 RUSSIA Country Report September 2019 www.intellinews.com