35 week: Russian River, Azov Sea, Caspian Sea; Coaster shipments
Due to poor economic situation in Turkey and small demand for Russian grain in the Republic, the grain shipments from Russia have been reoriented to other countries. So, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, since the beginning of the year Vietnam has displaced Turkey to the third place in the rating of import countries of Russian wheat. 
Nowadays the shipments to the Turkey are irregular and, for this reason, Ship Owners avoid to conclude the contracts are connected with Turkish side. Market participants note, in recent time, voyages from river elevator to Kavkaz port has become the most-coveted among the Owners of the Russian-flagged tonnage. A large quantity of grain is transported from Kavkaz port to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Europe and the countries of Asia (Vietnam, Bangladesh).
At the last meeting of the Ministry of Agriculture with the Russian lead Exporters, the Government brought to the table an initiative to sell 1.5 million of wheat for further export from the interventional fund. The authorities intend to reduce wheat prices in order to increase the pace and volumes of exports through injection of grain into the domestic market. It can be said with confidence that the top Russian Traders will outcompete the state auctions. Therefore, future trade routes are known. Grain parcels are carried out by ‘river-sea’ fleet from the river to the road of the Kavkaz port, and from there to the import countries. It is expected that with the beginning of the sales of announced volumes, more vessels will be required, and rates will rise. At the same time, it is paradoxical, but the freight for shipments from the river ports to Turkey also increases as to find an available fleet for such hauls is difficult. The rates ex Kamyshin to Marmara reached USD 45 pmt of wheat. This is USD 1 more than the level of week 34.
In addition, the crisis in Turkey has led to the fact that Charterers, who usually struggle with finding available vessels for shipments of niche goods (high cubic capacity, inability to provide full loading of ship, dangerous recipient country of the goods) and high transportation costs, nowadays charter the tonnage at favorable rates with no trouble.
The agrarians started corn harvesting in the Krasnodar territory, Saratov region and Tatarstan. Consequently, parcels with new crop will occur in the Caspian and Azov region soon. Ship Owners trust that as soon as the harvest arrives in the region, business activity will begin to grow and rates will rise.