A rare container will arrive in St. Petersburg – Kommersant

The ports of the North-Western Basin most affected by the sanctions, the largest in terms of container capacity in Russia (5 million TEU), this year can handle less than 1 million TEU, market participants believe. Nevertheless, container traffic is gradually recovering with the growth of ship calls from Chinese, as well as other Asian, Indian and South American operators. In contrast, the Far East is experiencing a rapid growth in container turnover, and it is in this region that the majority of new terminal projects are concentrated – for more than 5 million TEU, with the existing capacity of 2.4 million TEU.

With the largest container capacity among Russian basins – 5 million out of 8.7 million TEU – in the North-Western Basin, by the end of 2023, less than 1 million TEU of container turnover is expected. This was announced at a meeting of the expert club of the Eurasian Union of Participants of Rail Freight Transport (ESP) by Igor Pukhov, Commercial Director of MC Global Ports.

For Global Ports terminals in the North-West (3.1 million TEU of total capacity), he explained, in the first quarter the decrease was about 80% due to the high base of the first quarter of 2022. The company expects to process 150,000–170,000 TEUs in the North-West annually, which is very little, Mr. Pukhov explained, since in 2021 the terminals processed approximately 80,000 TEUs per month.

“Now we see a recovery,” Mr. Pukhov said. “We see that the volumes that could not and cannot pass through the ports of the Far East last year have reached the North-West.” He notes that regular container transportation, schedules have appeared, “even competition has appeared” between operators. Moreover, the operators, he says, are not only Chinese companies: “It is mainly China, but it is also India, South America, various ports in Southeast Asia.” The fleet, says Mr. Pukhov, is “normal for St. Petersburg”, with a capacity of 1.7 thousand to 4 thousand TEU.

According to Mikhail Burmistrov, head of Infoline-Analytics, even taking into account the range of the voyage, sea transportation of containers through St. Petersburg to the ports of destination can be competitive, but it is necessary that operators develop a fleet for such services.

In the Far East, the situation is the opposite: rapid growth is recorded. Elena Kazarina, Commercial Director of the Vladivostok Commercial Sea Port (VMTP), which is part of FESCO, said that VMTP, the largest Russian container terminal, handled 15% more cargo in the quarter than in the first quarter of 2022, and plans to show a container turnover of 840 by the end of the year thousand TEU against 770 thousand a year earlier.

Most of the plans to expand container capacities are also concentrated in the Far East. As Andrei Boldorev, head of the FSUE “Rosmorport” Investment and Strategic Development Department, explained in the context of financing infrastructure development through investment port dues, applications from the Far Eastern ports were received from VMTP – expansion by 1.7 million TEU in total, the port of Sukhodol – by 3 million TEU , Pervomaisky – by 460 thousand TEU. This is more than twice as much as the capacity of container terminals in the Far East, which, according to Igor Pukhov, is 2.4 million TEU.

In other basins, Andrey Boldorev adds, we are talking about the construction of a terminal in the port of Olya on the Caspian Sea for 1 million TEU as part of the development of the North-South corridor (see Kommersant of April 19). Also, Novoroslesexport has plans to expand the terminal by an additional 300 thousand TEU, and Rusatom Cargo is going to build a transit terminal on the Northern Sea Route for 800 thousand tons in Murmansk, and the second part of this project will be a transit terminal at VMTP.

The Far East lacks the capacity of sea terminals, says Mikhail Burmistrov, there are great difficulties with rear terminals, as well as high prices for transportation by container trucks – export from the sea terminal to the rear in Vladivostok is comparable in price to the transportation of a container from Moscow to St. Petersburg. As for the situation with the export from ports by rail, which was very difficult last year, it has noticeably improved in the Far East, which cannot be said about Novorossiysk, where, according to Mr. Burmistrov, containers are now in the port for two to three weeks.

Natalya Skorlygina