Acron is trying to recover $53,000 from Russian Railways

As of early July 2023, there are six lawsuits filed by Acron against Russian Railways (RZD), a legal entity of the largest carrier of the Russian railway network, for a total amount of more than 4.78 million rubles (almost $53 thousand).

Detailed reasons for filing claims are note dislosed in the case file. It’s only known that some of the lawsuits are aimed at collecting fines and state duties from Russian Railways. Almost all cases will be considered at the end of July in summary proceedings. The press service of the Russian Railways holding did not respond to Fertilizer Daily’s request regarding the reasons for filing these claims and the measures taken to resolve the situation.

Commenting on the fact that Acron filed claims against Russian Railways, industry expert Leonid Khazanov said that “Litigations by chemical companies and Russian Railways are usually related to the transportation of goods, for example, violation of the terms of their delivery or payment for uncoupling repairs of cars. On the one hand, mineral fertilizer producers have large fleets of their own and rented wagons, on the other hand, diesel locomotives and electric locomotives pulling them along the railway lines of Russia are concentrated in the hands of Russian Railways, and only it has the right to locomotive traction. Far from always, the consignor and Russian Railways have the same views on the fulfillment of the conditions for the transportation of fertilizers. At the same time, the outcome of litigation depends on the documents provided by the parties and their arguments. However, neither chemical companies nor Russian Railways will refuse to cooperate with each other – the first one is costly to deliver products by car, the second one is not profitable to lose income.”

“If we consider the claims of these companies in a comprehensive manner, we can come to the conclusion that Russian Railways systematically violates the terms of delivery of goods and empty wagons. The complexity of building logical routes and controlling them is directly dependent on many factors, including an increase in the volume of foreign trade, building new logical paths and directions, taking into account the geopolitical situation, and technical replacement or repair of trains, which leads to a delay in departures,” noted lawyer Mikhail Dubrovin, clarifying the situation.

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“However, despite the fact that positive judicial acts have already been issued on several claims, this does not mean that Russian Railways has failed to fulfill its obligations but only indicates their untimely fulfillment. It should be canceled that the collection of a penalty in the framework of rail transportation of goods is a systematic phenomenon, and should not cause a negative effect. In my opinion, the claims will be satisfied with a greater degree of probability, since the vast majority of them are considered in the order of summary proceedings,” concluded Mikhail Dubrovin.