Gradually overcoming the crisis the Russian port industry faces the aggravation of old problems and outbreak of new ones. At the same time Russia undergoes a number of significant reforms in this area - the boundaries of seaports have been established, the bill supporting shipbuilding and navigation has been developed, and International Maritime Organization (IMO) has carried out the audit. What are the prospects of this industry and what measures are needed to be taken in order to improve its competitiveness heads of leading enterprises and government representatives are to discuss October 5, 2010 as part of II International Conference "The Future of Russian Ports", which will take place within the framework of 10-th International Anniversary Exhibition Transtech-2010

The crisis has introduced a number of changes to the projects of construction of new port terminals in Russia. Volume of investment is reduced, project implementation period is rescheduled. However, large number of investment projects, that are on the early stage of implementation, have been worked out at the present moment, the most interesting of which are planned to be carried out in the Kaliningrad region, the port of Taman, Tuapse, and others.

In 2009 the global financial crisis had an impact both on performance of the industry, and on the entire economy of Russia. As part of the federal budget sequestration it became necessary to establish priorities and optimize costs.

Top Russian officials have repeatedly voiced the need for the development of Russian ports of the North-West in a bid to redirect freight traffic from the ports of the Baltic countries. At the same time, the Estonian SILPORT, Sillamae, is a joint Russo-Estonian company, which showed in 2009 as much as 1.5 times growth in cargo volumes over 2008. Andrew Birov, marketing director of SILPORT JSC told in his interview with PortNews IAA about the company’s portfolio of assets, the 2009’s outcome and the port’s prospects.

It has long been no secret that Russian shipbuilding industry has low competition capacity. It is required to carry out modernization of shipyards, as well as reduce their wasteful expenditures. There is almost no chance to do it without amending the current legislation – technical re-equipment of enterprises would lead to a sharp increase in deductions on net worth taxes, and import of foreign equipment - from customs duties and VAT. Nevertheless, by March 2010 it is planned to prepare for the introduction to the State Duma the legislation "On measures to support the shipbuilding and shipping in Russia”, the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Industry and Trade and the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) are working on.

Despite unfavorable effects Russian Baltic ports in the first month of the new year sustained positive trends emerging lately last year. Big Port of St. Petersburg in the first month of 2010 showed an impressive growth of transshipment volumes, at 3.5 million tones or 18% up from January last year, while container turnover rose by 25%, to 112.290 TEUs. At the same time, the Kaliningrad port continued its volumes decline and even the throughput of Ust-Luga port, that previously always demonstrated positive dynamics, had a slight drop. Some experts say bureaucratic obstacles in Kaliningrad as well as the weather in the Ust-Luga case contributed to the recession.

Ust-Luga joint stock company implementing its ambitious project of integrated development of the Ust Luga port’s facilities in the Leningrad Region, on February 10, 2010 repaid at an agreed time the bond issue valued at 600 million rubles. The Ust Luga placed its 01-S bonds in February 2007, Marina Kondratieva, financial manager of the company said in an interview with PortNews IAA.

It is well known that a powerful Russia's navy is not possible without the development of the domestic shipbuilding industry. This is what the Government and businessmen agree with. Currently, the shipyards in Russia, as a rule, have low competitiveness compared to foreign companies. The PortNews IAA correspondent met recently with Ivaylo Getsov, the vice president of the transport and logistics of Safinat Logistic investment group. Mr. Getsov who has had a experience working in foreign shipping companies agreed to give his opinion on what dockyards are the most profitable for ship contracts and why, as well as measures that could make the domestic shipyards more attractive for orders by private shipping companies.

The participants of foreign economic activity complain about the excessive pressure from the Federal Customs Service of Russia (FCS) amid the general economic downturn. For its part, the Federal Customs Service regards the treasury reimbursement as its most important task in a crisis period. In the interests of business and customs this contradiction is regulated by the declared innovation - Transfer of cargo customs clearance to the state border and the establishment of the common custom space between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Last year with its economic recession hit severely the global market of container shipping. The leading ports in the world demonstrated 25% drop of container throughput by the end of the year compared with the previous year. The container terminals were the worst hit by economic slump. At the same time dockers started talking about the end of the crisis, after which a timid recovery of cargo traffic could start this year - by some estimates up to 15-20% compared to 2009.