Russian coal exporters buying own rail wagons

By Jackie Cowhig

NEW DELHI, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Russian coal exporters are scrambling to buy thousands of rail wagons because a chronic shortage of those provided by state rail monopoly RZhD has disrupted exports, an official at major exporter KRUTrade said.

"The rail wagon shortage is the biggest problem facing Russian coal exporters, aside from port capacity restrictions," he said on Tuesday, on the sidelines of a McCloskey coal conference in New Delhi.

"The industry needs about 22,000 wagons to flow smoothly but there are probably only about 17,000 in use," he said.

Many of RZhD's wagons are decades old and in such poor condition that they are shaken apart, shedding chunks of metal into their coal cargoes -- the source of contamination found in uncleaned Russian coal.

Wagons are not being replaced as fast as RZhD scraps them.

In addition, wagons sent into Ukraine to deliver Russian coal to ports such as Yuhzny are being retained by the Ukrainians, Russian exporters said.

There are too few wagons of the right size and track gauge in Ukraine and it is easier to pay a fine to RZhD for prolonged use than to buy them.

KRUTrade is one of the few Russian suppliers that has not declared force majeure on any deliveries this year because of logistical problems, he said. But it has had to agree some shipment changes with customers, despite the advantage it enjoys over other exporters of access to more ports to ship to the Atlantic and Pacific markets.