The outgoing year was a turning point for the entire Russian transport and logistics industry with its eastward pivot setting new priorities for the port infrastructure development.

Previously, the Northern Sea Route was considered mainly as a shipping route for the export of hydrocarbons from the Arctic projects. With Russia making a logistics ‘pivot’ toward the East region, the NSR importance for transit and coastal shipping increased dramatically.

Saint-Petersburg Government has initiated the exclusion of the border check point at the passenger terminal on Vasilyevsky island from the limits of Great Port of Saint-Petersburg. According to PortNews, the Transport Ministry’s commission may consider this issue before the end of 2022. The passenger terminal is run by Marine Facade which could lease out the territory to finance its activities amid the absence of international sea cruises to Russia’s Baltic region.

Russian economy and, consequently, its transport segment is undergoing substantial changes. The trade with western companies is rapidly shrinking while the redirection of cargo flows to the markets of other regions is hindered by infrastructure problems and insufficient national fleet

FSUE Rosmorport has summed up the results of the competition for providing agency services on attraction and transportation of passengers and cargoes by ferries between the ports of Ust-Luga and Kaliningrad until 2024. The winner, Oboronlogistics LLC, which is under sanctions, is already running railway ferries of the ferry complex. Lawyers believe the risk of secondary sanctions is not likely to affect those involved in cargo transportation.

Tectonic changes are underway in the global shipping market: freight rates for containers are falling, those for tankers on the rise. Russia is working towards organizing deep sea routes to China and other Asian countries as well as towards redirecting oil exports.

A new shipyard for construction of large vessels on Kotlin island (where the city of Kronstadt is located) planned by Rosatom according to its announcement in summer 2022 may get one of the first orders from PAO Far Eastern Shipping Company. The parties are discussing the possibility of building 16 universal dry cargo container ships and 8 tugs. As far as IAA PortNews knows, the facility will first work as a distributed shipyard of Baltiysky Zavod which can also be partially controlled by Rosatom

Initially due to the pandemic and now due to the ‘eastward pivot’, North-West ports and primarily container terminals of Saint-Petersburg started sinking considerably. However, the hype around the Far East ports may give a second wind to the port on the Neva river. Or may not...

The pandemic and geopolitical conflicts have changed the international logistics schemes. Russia is set to influence the global cargo flows with the development of the North-South corridor, China – with the promotion of the One Belt - One Way initiative, Europe with the TRACEKA and Global Gateway projects

RF Government suggests increasing the number of eastbound container trains by three pairs a day until the end of this year. The market players mark the record-breaking congestion of containers in the ports of Vladivostok and Vostochny in September-October. That solution will entail the need to redirect about 800 thousand tonnes of export coal to other basins of Russia. Analysts say the situation with the Eastern Polygon loading can be resolved if the number of container trains is increased to 30 per week