Transportation and forwarding company LLC “PhosAgro-Trans” was founded in August, 2002 with its parent office located in Saint-Petersburg. The need to found the company was called forth, first of all, by geographic remoteness of the raw materials source of OJSC “Apatit” in Murmansk Region from the enterprises consuming the raw materials, as well as by community of objectives for the heads of the company enterprises on arrangement of the shipment process, reduction of expenses, optimization of logistics patterns and development of the current transportation infrastructure.

The main objective of activity of company LLC “PhosAgro-Trans” is to transport apatite and nepheline concentrates, mineral fertilizers and raw materials used for their production, as well as to provide the enterprises of company “PhosAgro” with the rolling stock for shipment to the domestic and foreign markets, to optimize expenses and to duly resolve operational issues.

Location of company LLC “PhosAgro-Trans” is called forth by the fact that Saint-Petersburg is a largest transport nodal point of the Northwestern Region of Russia where the main extracting enterprise OJSC “Apatit”, Murmansk, St.Petersburg, Kandalaksha and Vyborg sea trade ports are located, as well as the Department of the Oktyabrskaya railways. It is a region from which general administration of service, shipping and commercial activities in the region is carried out.

In order to perform the assigned tasks the following main production subdivisions are created in company LLC “PhosAgro-Trans”, namely: Shipment Arrangement Service, Service for Registration and Usage of Rolling Stock and Port Department.

Functions of Shipment Arrangement Service:

- procurement for arrangement of rail transportation of raw materials, equipment, materials and finished products of the enterprises within the limits of effective contracts;
- cooperation with railway agencies and clients on issues relating to arrangement of carriage, performance of carriage within the limits of effective contracts, work under contracts with Oktyabrskaya, Severnaya, Moskovskaya, Privolzhskaya, Yuzhno-Uralskaya, Sverdlovskaya, Severo-Kavkazskaya and Kaliningradskaya railway authorities, center “Zheldorraschyot”, “Transcontainer”;
- procurement for planning of financial support and settlement of carriage with the railway agencies and clients, working out of proposals and measures on raising the efficiency of the Company’s operation when arranging the rail transportation.

Functions of Service for Registration and Usage of Rolling Stock

- arrangement of usage of freight cars held on lease and owned by company LLC “PhosAgro-Trans”;
- procurement for maintenance of the rented and owned car stock in operating condition;
- participation in elaboration of projects relating to renting the cars and their purchase;
- working out and calculation of the upkeep rates for the car fleet during usage and for scheduled types of repair;
- realization of measures on reduction of demurrage of railroad cars when they are prepared for loading and during all types of repairs, on purchase of spare parts and their supply to the repair enterprises and on planning of the company’s expenses on arrangement of all types of repairs and upkeep of the car fleet;
- arrangement for consideration of technical aspects and presentation of evaluation of the rolling stock family offered for rendering  or purchase by the manufacturing plants;
- arrangement for cooperation with the consignors, consignees of the goods and OJSC “RZhD” as regards usage, upkeep, repair and safe keeping of the car fleet.

Functions of the Port Department

- taking measures on arrangement of transshipment of cargos at the ports of the Northwestern Region;
- participation in coordination of the cargo flows in the most intensive areas;
- taking measures on minimization of demurrage of vessels and cars;
- arrangement for continuous round-the-clock supervision of all transshipment stages from arrival of vessels and preparation of berths;
- drawing up and fulfillment of the loading plans;
- arrangement for timely dispatch of empty rolling stock.

In order to simplify cooperation with clients, company LLC “PhosAgro-Trans” established its representative offices in Cherepovets railway center (Severnaya railways), Murmansk branch of Oktyabrskaya railways and in Saratov (Privolzhskaya railways). Such choice is motivated by the most dense concentration of cars and cargo flows in these directions. Establishment of these representative offices made it possible to improve arrangement of carriage, to use the rollick stock to the optimum, to ensure more strict control over the car turnover and, finally, to reduce the transportation costs.

All in all, since the onset of its activity, company LLC “PhosAgro-Trans” transported 27 million tons of cargos including almost 11 million tons in 2004 and 6.13 million tons in the first half of 2005.