Russia’s container market expected to grow by 3% this year
In the Far East, the turnover of containers is to increase by 8%
Russia’s container market is expected to grow by 3% this year, IAA PortNews correspondent cites Yuliya Kiselyova, Head of Marketing Analytics, FESCO, as saying at ShippingRu 2023 Conference held in Moscow. The experts forecasts imports to grow by 2%, mostly driven by the car industry, with exports to increase by 1% driven by agricultural products. Internal transportation is also expected to grow by 1%.
The Far East is expected to show the major increase — by 8% to 1.662 million TEU. All the segments are to show the growth: import — by 9% to 819 thousand TEU, export — by 9% to 510 thousand TEU, short-sea traffic — by 4% to 187 thousand TEU, transit — by 3% to 146 thousand TEU.
The expert noted the following factors affecting the slowdown of the growth rates: international restrictions, inflation and the decrease of purchasing power, delayed effect of import substitution expected in the second half of 2023 and slowdown in global economic growth. At the same time, the international container market is expected to grow by 8% in 2023. The key challenges in the market: the steep fall of freight rates and the excess of ships.
FESCO analysts reported the following results of 2022 in Russia’s container market: a general fall of 16% with the fall of exports of 25% to 1.6 million tonnes, imports - 12% to 1.9 million tonnes, transit - 23% to 0.8 million tonnes, while internal transportation was flat, year-on-year, at 1.1 million tonnes. In Saint-Petersburg, container transportation fell by 65%, in Novorossiysk- by 14%, while container throughput of the Far East ports grew by 12%.
