Domestic Russian supply chain across the Siberian hinterland has been severely disrupted after heavy rainfall caused the Kholodnaya River to burst its banks and destroy a dam in the process.
About 200 meters of track of the crucial east-west railway line, the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM), was also dragged along by flooding, prompting a state of emergency in the Severo-Baikal region.
The BAM traverses Eastern Siberia and the far eastern territory of Buryatia, starting at Tayshet in the Russian interior where it peals away from the Trans-Siberian Railway line, finally reaching two end points about 4 324 kilometres away.
A report by The Loadstar said “the line could be out of action for at least a week, causing “damage to the country’s economy from idle cargo… plus the cost of restoring the railroad”.
Disruption to the BAM service is expected to impact fish caught in the seas of Japan and Okhotsk and rail-freighted to domestic consumer markets out west.
Ocean freight alternatives between Moscow and the BAM’s end points north of Vladivostok about 9 166 kilometres away, have proved too expensive in the past.
The BAM is also a primary link between China’s Manchuria region and Russia, reconnected recently by a bridge across the Amur River that is also in flood.
It is understood that logistical developments in the region have resulted in a 75% increase in the movement of goods from China into Russia, worth $43 billion, The Loadstar reports.
