Most of Norilsk Nickel's cargo traffic is concentrated in the western part of the Northern Sea Route, but Ravil Nasybullov, the company's logistics department, does not rule out the possibility that commodity flows will be redirected to the East, which will require 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 has said that it will stop transporting Russian cargoes from 2023. All of Norilsk Nickel's cargoes between the Russian and Finnish divisions are transported by rail. The Russians need to look for alternative logistics routes by 2023 because of these decisions.
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.
The growth in shipping is spurred by a series of new industrial projects in the Taymyr Peninsula, several of which are operated by Nornickel.
The Russian company, owned and managed by Vladimir Potanin, now invests up to 26 billions rubles $300 million in the modernization of local infrastructure. There is a new logistics center.
Nikolai Utkin, company representative, said at the opening ceremony that the new center will positively affect the local goods delivery process.
He said that it was a new direction, a project on the digitalization of production.
Nornickel, unlike many of Russia's other industrial majors, is not sanctioned by the international community, and shipments of nickel and other precious metals continue to reach western manufacturers.
Utkin underlines the importance of transportation issues today.
The organization and construction of efficient logistics chains has always been a priority for us, after all we are located in the periphery with complicated conditions for goods transportation and a limited period for navigation - it has required smooth and tedious work. One of Nornickel's ongoing development projects in the area is the construction of a new processing plant in Talnakh, as well as a major renovation program for the city of Norilsk.