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transportation), such ships are included in the long-term plan for industry development by 2035, ordered by President Vladimir Putin in August, Evtukhov reminded RBC. Analysts surveyed by RBC remind that due to the sanctions for Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, Russian grain exports face serious obstacles in charting and insuring their sea vessels. Nevertheless, bulk cargo turnover in Russian ports has remained high.
Cargo transportation over the Northern Sea Route (NSR) totaled 34mn metric tonnes in 2022, which is 2mn metric tonnes above the target in the Northern Sea Route Development federal project, according to the press service of Rosatom state corporation. The target of 32mn metric tonnes was achieved in mid-December 2022. The NSR cargo traffic gained 966,000 tonnes as of year-end 2022 owing to Russian companies, with an incremental growth of 3% compared to 2021.
Oil and gas investment projects were the backbone of the NSR cargo traffic, with oil and petroleum products amounting to 7.22mn metric tonnes, 20.5mn metric tonnes of LNG and gas condensate carried, 295,000 metric tonnes of coal transported, 43,500 metric tonnes of ore concentrate transported and 4.25mn metric tonnes of general cargo.
The volume of cargo transportation in Russia by inland waterways in 2023 is expected grow to 118.8mn metric tonnes, the volume of passenger transportation - to 10.9mn people, the river and sea fleet authority Rosmorrechflot reported on Friday. In 2022, according to preliminary estimates, 117.2mn metric tonnes of cargo were transported, which is 6.4% more than in 2021. The volume of tourist passenger traffic increased by 36%.
9.1.13 Other sector news
Russia’s chemical industry is expected to see a decline in production of 4-5% by the end of 2022, according to Rosstat, Ria Ratings reports. However, production is expected to recover somewhat in 2023 due to a low base effect.
The decline in production in large chemicals (excluding pharmaceuticals) was 3.2% for the first nine months of the year, with the smaller scale more specialist chemicals, that are more dependent on imports, being hardest hit.
The chemical industry has been a strong performer in Russia for over a decade, with the last negative trend recorded in 2009. However, in 2022, the industry's production saw a worse performance than the wider industry as a whole for the first time in many years.
The worst result for nine months was obtained in the production of soap and detergents, cleaners and polishes; perfumery and cosmetics - a decline of
144 RUSSIA Country Report February 2023 www.intellinews.com