335 
Output : Carriage 
Billion Million 
ton-miles Percent tons Percent 
MOtalwere oR Oey» SI Le. 8 417.0 100 192.0 100 
In foreign navigation ! ____________-_- 385.0 92 114.0 59 
In domestic service _______________- 32.0 8 78.0 41 
1 Reflects fleet activity both in Soviet foreign trade and the cross trades. 
The domestic activities of the Soviet fleet, in which it has 
a complete monopoly, consist largely of bulk cargo movements in 
the Black Sea, Caspian, and Far Eastern Basins and the servicing 
of ports in the Far East and along the Northern Sea Route, particularly 
those that have no rail or road access. 
Of the 114 million tons moved by the Soviet fleet in interna- 
tional trade during 1974, about 90 million tons consisted of Soviet 
imports and exports. The remainder was cross trade cargo moved 
between foreign ports. 
The most important single determinant of the employment of 
the Soviet merchant fleet and of its composition is Soviet seaborne 
foreign trade. Three aspects of this trade are important—the preponde- 
rance of exports over imports, its distribution among trading partners, 
and its commodity composition. 
Total trade in 1974 reached more than 140 million tons; exports 
accounted for 118 million tons, 84 percent of the total. The export 
share in total Soviet seaborne trade tonnage has run close to 84 
percent since the late 1950’s, making the fleet’s chief role that of 
an earner of foreign exchange in delivering Soviet exports. Because 
the capacity of Soviet ships returning to home ports after delivering 
exports far exceeds the volume of Soviet imports, the U.S.S.R. has 
been able during most years to carry a high proportion of its imports 
on its own ships, thereby minimizing payments of foreign exchange 
to non-Soviet shipowners. The only years in which the U.S.S.R. has 
had to rely heavily on foreign ships to carry imports have been those 
in which poor harvests have led to heavy grain imports. 
Oil, which accounts for almost half of total Soviet seaborne 
trade, is the chief export in volume terms. For this reason, one- 
third of fleet capacity consists of tankers (see table 4). Wood, metallic 
ores, coal, and phosphate rock are also important bulk exports. Wood 
moves on small specialized timber carriers while the other bulk car- 
goes move on general-purpose and dry bulk cargo ships. A majority 
of the bulk goods are sold to the U.S.S.R.’s industrial trading partners 
such as Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and West Germany, allowing 
Soviet ships participating in these trades to earn hard currency. Car- 
riage of this trade is shared with ships of the trading partners and 
customer-chartered third-flag ships. 
