The extended meeting of the Council under the Federal Agency of Marine and River Transport paid considerable attention to the development of inland waterways. Last year, the volume of cargo transported by inland waterways grew by 10%. However, the development of river transportation requires large scale investments into infrastructure. Otherwise, the shipping will become unprofitable and unsafe. In 2008, RUR 4.2 billion will be allocated from the federal budget for implementation of subprogram “Inland Waterways” within the framework of the federal special purpose program “Modernization of Russia’s Transport System”. RUR 8.3 billion will be spent for maintenance of inland waterways and hydraulic engineering. The draft project for extension of the special purpose program is under development today. It is supposed that total financing will exceed RUR 230 billion by 2015, with a major part of costs to be born by the federal budget

RosMorPort FSUE plans to carry out large-scale works on reconstruction of federal facilities in the port of St. Petersburg including the network of the approach and navigation channels and the berths. The largest project is the construction of an approach channel to Bronka district considered to be the most promising area as regards construction of new terminals. Total value of dredging works in the district is expected to make RUR 10 billion.

RF Government has approved the procedure for obtaining of permits for sailing along Russia’s internal waterways by vessels flying the foreign flag. Applications are to be filed directly to the Ministry of Transport now, which simplifies the procedure. It is a next step towards opening of inland waters for foreign vessels, which is to be finished by Russia’s joining WTO

Containerization growth is one of the basic tendencies in the development of maritime transportation. According to British consulting agency Drewry Shipping Consultants, in 2007 global container traffic totaled some 143 million TEU, while total volume of containers handled by the terminals amounted to approximately 490 million TEU. The problem, however, is in faster development of throughput as compared with the terminals’ capacity. In future it is to result in the deficit of transshipment capacity. The Eastern Europe and Russia as a part of it is to face it as early as in 2009

The majority of seaports in the North-Western Basin increased their turnover in 2007. Throughput of Big Port of St. Petersburg climbed by 10%, Kaliningrad – by 3.1%. The ports of Vyborg and Vysotsk increased their results by almost one third. However, the port of Murmansk decreased its cargo turnover by 5%, while the results of Archangelsk port did not change a lot (-0.6%)

Gazprom has announced its rejection of Baltic LNG project which stipulated construction of an LNG plant in the Leningrad region as it considered the project to be economically inefficient. Gazprom decided to focus on other projects related to production and transportation of natural gas while it may result in loss of considerable volumes of LNG export for the company’s partner Sovcomflot as well as in absence of LNG transshipment facilities in the North-West region

The need for construction of rear port terminals emerged long time ago but the idea was not put into practice. However implementation of a number of projects has started recently. The construction of logistics complexes is carried out by both the companies owing marine terminals as well as those having no direct relation to port business. Experts say that dry docks are to ensure the growth of ports’ throughput due to a decrease of time containers are at the terminals’ territory

This week the authorities of the Primorie Territory have announced their intent to continue active development of container transportation at the Far East through construction of five new container terminals in the south of Primorie. Besides, they also plan a modernization of existing transshipment facilities, the throughput of which grew by over one third in 2007. Experts say there are perspectives for the development though the main problem hindering improvement of container transportation is poor infrastructure and high cost of container handling operations

North-Western Shipping Company is 85 years old. This simple phrase reveals the history of one of the largest transport companies in Russia. However the considerable age is not a ground for resting on laurels. On the contrary is should be an incentive to prove that past experience is an excellent basis for future achievements

Last years saw a very active work of foreign automobile concerns in development of their assembly facilities in Russia and, consequently, in delivery of components. Considering that carmakers, especially Japanese ones, are very scrupulous in selection of their partners, the presence of Russian companies in the supply chains suggests that Russia’s transport market is up to the world standard today