Norilsk Nickel may redirect commodities to East

Most of Norilsk Nickel's cargo traffic is concentrated in the western part of the Northern Sea Route, but Ravil Nasybullov, director of the company's logistics department, does not rule out the possibility that commodity flows will be redirected to the East, which requires the use of icebreakers on the route, according to Russian specialized publication portnews reports.

If the company is not under sanctions, the European contractors refuse to work with producers in Russia.

The Finnish state railway VR said from 2023 it will stop transporting Russian cargoes. Norilsk Nickel's cargoes are currently transported by rail between the Russian and Finnish divisions. The Russians must look for alternative logistics routes by 2023 due to the decisions made by VR.

In addition to the turbulence in geopolitics, the Russian Arctic has seen an expansion in capacity and the development of shipping along one of the region's largest rivers, the Yenisei.

There are a lot of new industrial projects in the Taymyr Peninsula that are operated by Nornickel, and the growth in shipping is spurred by the number of new industrial projects in the Taymyr Peninsula.

The company, owned and managed by Vladimir Potanin, invests up to 26 billions rubles 300 million in the modernization of local infrastructure. There is a new logistics center.

Nikolai Utkin, company representative at the opening ceremony of the new center, said this will positively affect the local goods delivery process.

He said that it was a new direction, a project on the digitalization of production.

Nornickel is not sanctioned by the international community, unlike many of Russia's other industrial majors, and shipments of nickel and other precious metals continue to reach western manufacturers.

The transportation issues are of crucial importance, underlines Utkin.

The organization and construction of efficient logistics chains has always been a priority for us, as we are located in the periphery with complicated conditions for goods transportation and a limited time for navigation - it has required smooth and tedious work. Nornickel is currently working on a new processing plant in Talnakh, as well as a major renovation program for the city of Norilsk.