Midway through 2024, as India surpassed China to become the largest buyer of Russian oil, the operationalisation of a new sea route – the Eastern Maritime Corridor – is beginning to play an increasingly significant role in boosting commodity trade between the two countries, especially crude oil shipments to India.
The new eastern route from Chennai to Vladivostok is translating into savings on two counts: shipment times between the two countries and thereby transportation costs. Trading of commodities such as crude, coal and LNG have already commenced via the new eastern route since early this year, while others products including fertilisers and containerised cargo that warrant longer-term commitment from both parties are also now being shipped.
The Chennai-Vladivostok sea route covers a distance of about 5,600 nautical miles and is estimated to have reduced the time required to transport cargo between the Indian and Russian Ports of the Far East Region by up to 16 days. The time taken has come down to 24 days compared to over 40 days that it takes to transport goods to India from the west of Russia via Europe. This traditional trade route between Mumbai and St Petersburg in Russia spans a distance of 8,675 nautical miles, and the time taken for transportation is 40 days or more.
“With the operalationalisation of the Eastern Maritime Corridor between Vladivostok and Chennai, ships carrying crude oil, metals etc are now coming to Indian ports. This new route has significantly reduced the transit time between the two countries,” Union Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal told The Indian Express.
A large ship that travels at the normal cruising speed of around 25 knots (about 45 kilometres/hour) takes about 12 days to cover the distance between Vladivostok and Chennai, less than a third of the time taken through the traditional St Petersburg-Mumbai sea route. Vladivostok is the largest Russian port on the Pacific Ocean, and is located about 50 kilometres from the Sino-Russia border. On the Indian side, Chennai, and other eastern ports including Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Tuticorin, Ennore and Kolkata are being leveraged as docking points, depending on the cargo type and the eventual destination for the shipments. According to Shipping Ministry data on cumulative shipments through 2024, the top import items in value terms were crude oil, project goods, coal and coke, vegetable oils and fertilisers. When it comes to exports to Russia, the top five products by value that were exported from India through this route were processed minerals, iron and steel, tea, marine products, tea and coffee.
In terms of quantity, the import data showed that the top five commodities were petroleum crude, coal and coke, fertilisers, vegetable oil and iron and steel, while quantity wise, the top export commodities were processed minerals, iron and steel, tea, granite and natural stones, processed fruits and juices.
In July this year, India – world’s third-largest consumer of crude oil with a high import dependency level of over 85 per cent – had surpassed China as the largest buyer of Russian oil. Towards the second half of the year, India’s imports declined somewhat after refiners in the country took their annual maintenance shutdowns. Despite the decline in overall import volumes of Russian oil, shipments of the country’s flagship crude grade—the medium-sour Urals—were at a four-month high in October. Urals is also the mainstay of India’s Russian oil purchases, and accounted for over three-fourths of Russian oil imported by Indian refiners. Imports of some other Russian crude grades, however, declined sharply.
Prior to the war in Ukraine, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were the top two suppliers of crude oil to India. But as the West started weaning itself off Russian energy supplies following Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia started offering discounts on its crude and Indian refiners started buying the discounted barrels.
Although discounts on Russian crude have come down over time, Indian refiners have evidently remained keen on buying Russian oil as given the high import volumes, even lower discount levels lead to significant savings. The savings on shipping costs on account of the new route sweetens the deal further in favour of Russian crude.
For India, aligning with Russia offers multiple advantages that go beyond just the oil trade. Strategically, a greater deal of engagement helps to curb Moscow’s tilt toward China. India also relies on Russia to maintain its armed forces, and for co-operation on nuclear-powered submarines. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, is due to visit India in 2025.
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