Current and potential BRICS members represent 66% of the world’s population, 36% of global GDP and 46% of international trade in containerised goods. Their combined share in global GDP is expected to increase to 38% by 2030 due to the average annual real GDP growth rate exceeding that of the rest of the world (+4.1% on average per year against +2.4%). The real GDP growth of the current and potential BRICS countries in absolute terms will amount to USD 10.7 trillion and will be comparable to the growth rate of the rest of the world (+4.1 per cent on average per year against +2.4 per cent). This will be comparable to the GDP growth of the rest of the world ($10.8 trillion). And the volume of international trade of BRICS countries in potentially containerised goods could grow by 25% by 2030.
About 90 per cent of international container traffic of current BRICS members is destined for countries outside the association. The share of intra-BRICS traffic increased from 9% in 2015 to 11% in 2023, but the increase was mainly due to the shift of Russian container traffic from European to Chinese suppliers in the last 3 years. More active development of trade relations within BRICS and involvement of potential BRICS members is a ‘growth point’ for international container traffic.
For Russia, BRICS is a key partner in trade in goods transported in containers. The share of BRICS in Russia’s containerised imports in 2023 reached 71% (≈1.2 million TEUs), in containerised exports — 72% (≈2.0 million TEUs). The imbalance between imports and exports creates opportunities to increase containerised exports to the BRICS countries, create more complex container transport routes and use alternative types of containers (e.g. folding containers) to ensure back-loading of containers and ships.
The emergence of new centres of economic growth and active development of container infrastructure (terminals, fleet) in current and potential BRICS countries create a basis for building new corridors for the BRICS members — more competitive in terms of price/time.
Today, the BRICS countries are Russia’s key strategic partners in container logistics, accounting for more than two thirds of its foreign trade container turnover. This partnership emphasises the importance of the association in creating stable and sustainable logistics chains in Russia’s foreign trade.
Conditions for realising the potential for strengthening Russia’s role in global container shipping:
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Increasing containerisation of Russian exports
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Development of existing and new international transport corridors
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Removal of infrastructural restrictions
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Stimulation of investments in the development of the Russian sea container fleet and gaining control over the sea terminal infrastructure abroad
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Removal of customs, documentary and other restrictions at the level of BRICS member states, i.e. creation of seamless logistics
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Payment system and cross-border lending for transport investment projects
With the growing influence of current and potential BRICS members, which already provide the cargo base for almost half of the global of the world’s container traffic, the demand for reliable logistics solutions within the framework of international co-operation is only increasing. In order to effectively develop partnership relations, it is necessary to simplify conditions for mutual market access, introduce electronic document management, eliminate customs and phytosanitary restrictions, reduce trade barriers and the level of tariff protection, and create their own system of international settlements.
