With the Big Four dredging companies of Europe having left Russia, the tenders under the Arctic projects attract Russian businesses. MezhRegionTruboprovodStroy JSC (MRTS) is registered as a bidder for maintenance dredging in the water area and on the access canal to terminal Utrenny (port Sabetta) in the navigation season of 2022 under NOVATEK’s Arctic LNG 2 project. The contract price is RUB 246.6 million.

RF Government started subsidizing coastal voyages in the Arctic from the ports of Saint-Petersburg and Murmansk to the Far East terminals. From the beginning of the year, annual allocations for those purposes make RUB 560 million. However, nuclear-powered container ship Sevmorput deployed for this purpose is only 10% loaded. Shippers say the route organization lacks awareness

Latvia declares Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. Estonia restricts the issuing of visas to citizens of Russia. Lithuania continues creating difficulties for transit. Russia, in its turn, warns about serious consequences of such actions. Meanwhile, in the first half of 2022, ports of Russia’s Baltic neighbors handled 9.8 million tonnes of Russian cargo. Can they be redirected to the domestic ports in full?

Total capacity of the Far East ports will grow by almost 30 million tonnes within a couple of year with implementation of the announced investment projects. In view of the exports pivot to Russia’s eastern gates, the highest growth is expected in Primorye and Kamchatka.

Russian container market has been living in an absolutely new reality from February 24. Major marine operators have exited and the local players join hands with other foreign companies to launch new services and look for alternative ways of their container fleet expansion. FESCO, Novomorsnab and Ruscon told about the new export and import routes at the YugTrans Forum.

Despite certain backslide of the decarbonization agenda amid the global energy crisis and restructuring of the global fuel market, LNG demand in shipping is not declining with its role increasingly high. Russia has a unique resource base in this segment and it can be used efficiently

Exports of coal, one of Russia’s three major foreign trade cargoes, have started declining. After the EU built up its purchase in May, June saw a 48-pct fall Russian coal shipments with the port of Ust-Luga affected most of all.

Freight rates and bunker prices have been showing sharp and mixed changes recently. VLCC rates have shown negative records and long-term shipping rates exceeded spot rates. With this background, measures to subsidize acquisition and chartering of ships are being developed in Russia.

The industry’s oldest fishery company – Arkhangelsk Trawl Fleet JSC (ATF) – has been fishing in the northern seas for over a hundred years. Today, ATF is one of the fishing industry leaders. In his interview with IAA PortNews, ATF General Director Sergey Zarubin tells about the problems with construction of new ships, ship repair, and development of the company’s stevedoring activities at its own berths.

Amid sanctions and ‘logistics pivot’, much attention is paid to the development of the North-South ITC. The recent weeks have seen active launching of services on this route. However, it has some challenges and bottlenecks.