Fishing industry in Russia is undergoing reforms and modernization. Ilya Shestakov, head of Russian Federal Fisheries Agency (Rosrybolovstvo), Deputy Minister of Agriculture, tells IAA PortNews about fish exports from Russia.

Providing of investment quotas can trigger the programme on large scale construction of fishing ships at Russian shipyards. However, quality and time framework is essential for to ensure reasonable substitution of imports in the field of designing, construction and equipment of vessels.

RF Government has approved a programme for construction of ferries to be operated on Ust-Luga – Baltijsk line. However, it is also reasonable to launch a container line between Saint-Petersburg and the Kaliningrad Region to ensure proper links of the mainland Russia with the exclave.

Irina Olkhovskaya, First Deputy Director and Commercial Director of Port Management Company LLC, tells IAA PortNews about the situation in Russian and international coal market and covers the challenges of coal delivery to sea terminals.

The SPIEF 2017, St. Petersburg International Economic Forum dedicated to transport and logistics, was focused on the search of mechanisms to finance the infrastructure amid the budget deficit and on looking into drawing of cargo flows from seaborne transport to railways in the framework of Asia-Europe corridor.

Russia’s Ministry of Transport has developed a state programme ‘Expanding the use of natural gas as fuel for transport and special purpose equipment’ to encourage construction of LNG-powered ships and development of required infrastructure with the Baltic Sea and the Rebublic Tatarstan to be pilot regions in the part of sea transport and river transport accordingly.

Russia’s strategy for the development of inland water transport till 2030 implies the construction of over 13,500 river ships and ships of mixed sea/river navigation. Implementation of those plans still faces a number of challenges including a tariff policy that lacks balance between different types of transport and a vague package of measures for financial support of ship owners.

New Russian design company Nordic Engineering JSC established by a large German shipbuilder, Nordic Yards Holding GmbH, has obtained from its parent company the most advanced technologies and entered the market of Russia. Today, this fully Russian engineering company has asserted itself with a unique project of a crab boat that can cost just $10-12 mln, says Vitaly Gvozdev, Director General of Nordic Engineering JSC.

The main concern about availability of stevedoring services is associated with the deficit of transshipment facilities for certain cargoes. The issue can be dealt with only through investments into development of the facilities while interference of state authorities just scares away potential investors. To ensure the market balance, free capacity should make 25-30% of total terminal capacity, believes the Ministry of Transport.

The port of Yalta is going to become profitable in 2017 after a loss of RUB 156 mln. The Port Director Denis Volkov is set to build up transshipment of cargo delivered from mainland Russia and make transportation of tourists by the port’s own fleet surge six times, not including the plans on Sochi – Yalta ferry service. That will be facilitated by the recent launching of the port reconstruction with budget allocations of RUB 2.6 bln.