Sverdlovsk Region Railways’ press service reports the company’s fleet of intermediate bulk containers has not been upgraded since 1996 and is now over 90% worn out.

Most of these containers will be disposed of due to reaching their maximum life span by the end of 2012.

At the same time, TransContainer cannot afford to renew or upgrade its fleet of intermediate bulk containers because they are no longer manufactured in Russia or the CIS member states. Other countries that do produce containers (for example, China) do not deal in the production of intermediate bulk containers. What is more, the commercial expediency of shipping goods in intermediate bulk containers dropped dramatically. In Russia alone, such shipments have decreased by over 15% over the last three years. At the moment, intermediate bulk container shipments only amount to 0.1% of all the railway shipments.

intermediate bulk containers that can be officially used around Russia do not meet any international standards; the rest of the world typically uses 20 ft and 40 ft freight containers that meet ISO standards. This increases the lifespan of the containers and leads to more containers being used in one shipment; this actually results in the shortage of intermediate bulk containers, Sverdlovsk Region Railways reports.