In 2015, the market of oversized cargo transported by road from the countries of the EU to the Russian Federation decreased by over 30% against the year 2014.
According to the report prepared by Marketing Department of TELS group of companies (based on the data from Statistical Department of the EU), the major flow of oversized cargoes transported by road from the EU to the Russian Federation delivered “oversized industrial machines and industrial equipment” and “building machinery and road-building machines (cranes)”.
Oversized industrial machines and industrial equipment
In 2015, 256.8 thousand tons of oversized industrial machines and industrial equipment were imported by road from the EU to Russia, which is 32.4% less than in 2014.
The major supplier of the industrial equipment to Russia was Germany (with 70.9 thousand tons imported in 2015). For Germany, the volume of freight traffic transporting the above mentioned types of cargo decreased by 37.1%. Import of industrial equipment from Italy decreased by 44.5% (up to 36.6 thousand tons), from Poland – by 8.1% (up to 22 thousand tons), from the Czech Republic – by 23.9% (up to 20.7 thousand tons).
At the same time, import of industrial machines and equipment from the Netherlands to Russia grew by 3.2% (up to 16.8 thousand tons).
The major reasons for the decrease in import of industrial equipment from the EU to the Russian Federation is the economic crisis in Russia intensified by European sanctions. This resulted in the following changes:
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Reduction in the volume of productive capacity against crisis expectations.
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Decrease in investment potential of Russian industries due to the sanctions limiting Russian banks to receive foreign borrowed funds.
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Sanctions limiting import of certain types of equipment to the Russian Federation.
Building and road-building machines
In 2015, 100.2 thousand tons of building and road-building machines were imported by road from the European Union to Russia, which is 45.6 less than in 2014. The major suppliers were Germany, Italy and Poland.
The reduction of import of road-building machines from the EU to the Russian Federation (besides the above-mentioned reasons) resulted from the following:
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Sanctions of the European Union limiting export of equipment and machines of twofold purpose (which can have military application) to Russia.
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“Choice shift” expressed by the fact that Russian consumers prefer Japanese, Korean and Chinese heavy equipment to European.
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Tendency of heavy equipment owners to minimize the expenses by repairing working vehicles and machines and buying used machines rather than new ones.
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In 2016, significant changes in this market sector are not expected. Provided certain sanctions are lifted, the investment activity may improve, however this is unlikely to bring revolutionary changes as the crisis in Russia is domestic and systematic (in particular, it hinges on the prices for energy resources). According to some experts, Russia is likely to revitalize its economic growth in the year 2016 if oil prices grow.