The version for the print

  • 2008 September 15

    Port of foreign car attraction

    “Sea Port of St. Petersburg” group of companies was right when it staked on a new type of cargo two years ago. New automobile terminal built within the framework of a long-term investment program demonstrated high efficiency during two months of operation. "Car transshipment is more profitable for us as compared with timber handling which was earlier carried out here," the General Director of OJSC “Sea Port of St. Petersburg” Sergey Chelyadin told PortNews IAA.

     

    In spring 2008, Third Stevedoring Company (TSC CJSC, a part of Sea Port of St. Petersburg OJSC) opened a terminal for acceptance of large car batches. Investment of Sea Port of St. Petersburg amounted to RUR 260 mln. The project was implemented during a half of a year. Before the mid-2007 the company used to specialize in timber handling. By the end of the current year the terminal is forecasted to handle 50,000 automobiles (some 6-7% of all foreign cars imported by Russia as a part of Finnish transit). "Those are cars earlier supposed to enter Russia via the ports of Finland. So this year over 10,000 car carrying trucks were taken away from Russia-Finland border,” the General Director of Sea Port of St. Petersburg told PortNews IAA. The new terminal is fitted with up-to-date automated control system for on-line generation of documents, tracing of cargo movement and optimization of cargo flows. It takes some 12 hours to unload one vessel at the terminal.

    Development of Russian car terminals in the Gulf of Finland ports allows reducing load of border crossings in North-West federal region. “Probably it is not right to transfer such big amount of new cars via the Russia-Finland border. This hinders transferring other cargoes”, the first deputy of head of North-West customary department Aleksandr Getman commented on the problem of border crossings overload.

     

    Skyrocketing growth

    We are observing a triple growth of the amount of cars the Big Port of St. Petersburg handled in the first 8 months of 2008. According to market participants the port terminals accepted over 150,000 automobiles. Besides Third Stevedoring Company cars are transshipped on the berth №101 (CJSC “Fourth Stevedoring Company”, a part of “Sea Port of St. Petersburg”), at a large specialized terminal in the Fish port, on berths of OJSC “Petrolesport” and at the costal terminal “Onega” of “Oslo Marine” group.

    “There is enough place for everyone in the market, - the president of “Oslo Marine” group Vitaly Archangelsky is sure. – Import of new and used cars from Finland amounts about 3 mln cars a year. I think in such situation we should talk about partnership rather than competition”.

    The potential growth of car flow to Russian ports is doubtless quite big. “Russian car import logistics is still determined under residual principle”, a deputy general director of the Sea trading port of Ust-Luga, “Ug-2” director of terminal activity Sergey Bobryshev believes. The majority of cars intended for the Russian market are still transferred via Finnish ports – Kotka, Hanko, Turku. A part of imported cars come via Baltic ports Paldiski and Riga, and also via more remote ports of Slovenia (Koper) and Poland (Gdinya). Meanwhile a car transfer to Moscow costs $4,000 via Finland and $1,500 via St. Petersburg. 

     

    Developing project

    A favourable market situation and high demand of car transshipment in St. Petersburg allow OJSC “Sea Port of St. Petersburg” to think over commissioning of the second stage of TSK car terminal. It is planned to enlarge the total area of the terminal up to 10 ha due to formation (shore deposition) of new territories in the port water area. RUR 750 mln invested in the project will allow “Third Stevedoring Company” to increase the terminal’s throughput to 250,000 cars a year. “The investment programme has been so far realized at company’s own expenses. Apart from TSK we have invested in a new container terminal, and plan to commence installation of new crane equipment in August 2009”, Sergey Chelyadin explained.

    An expeditor of the TSK car terminal (provides sea delivery of cars to the terminal and transfer with car carrying trucks) LLC “Russian Transport Lines” (RTL) assures it will be able to load all new port ro-ro facilities, which “Sea Port of St. Petersburg” group of companies will commission within its investment programme. “I suppose the number of imported in Russia cars will continue skyrocketing in the next 3-4 years. Meanwhile logistics of such transfers is becoming complicated”, the general director of RTL Konstantin Skovoroda told PortNews IAA. He is sure that very soon car storage, before-selling preparation, sorting of cars depending on a final delivery region will be requested from all Russian terminals. “That is why I see the future of the port of St. Petersburg in terms of joint use of all specialized port terminals by different car brands for rendering versatile services required”, he added.

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