FESCO plans to put 5-6 ships on Deep Sea route from China by the end of 2023 – Andrey Severilov
The company opens new services from the countries of SEA and Maghrib
FESCO Transportation Group continues to invest in assets in a declining market and plans to open a number of new services in the southeast and in the south this year as well as to upgrade and expand its fleet, IAA PortNews correspondent cited Andrey Severilov, Chairman of FESCO BoD, as saying at TransRussia forum in Moscow.
According to Andrey Severilov, 2022 was a "breakthrough year" for the company: "In 2023, the volume of transportation by the company's ships has increased by 38%." According to the speaker, the geography of FESCO activities expanded considerably in 2022: “Three ships are already operating in the Vietnamese direction with the service being in great demand. New lines are being opened to Malaysia and Thailand. Besides, the company’s activity in the Black Sea and in the Mediterranean Sea is intensifying: a line from Novorossiysk to Istanbul was opened last year, and from Novorossiysk to Mersin this year. There is a plan to open a line to Egypt from October 2023. The possibility of a service from Tunisia is also being worked out. However, the main project is a regular Deep Sea line from Shanghai to St. Petersburg,” he said, adding that new container ship Kapitan Shchetinina will arrive in St. Petersburg from China on April 25 as part of its first voyage.
Speaking about the company’s results and plans at a meeting with journalists, Andrey Severilov specified that a total of 5 or 6 vessels will be put on the Deep Sea route by the end of this year. “We are completing the entire line of 6 new vessels acquired at our own expense. It is possible that we will put one vessel on another line. Each ship costs over $40 million. The capacity of each ship is 2,471 TEU. When making a decision on the vessel tonnage kept in mind the possibility to use the vessels for any other destination and service. They are interchangeable with our other vessels. All vessels are new, built in 2023. Equipped with modern systems they are very economical. The line economy is quite good, so we expect that large volumes of cargo flowing from the Asia-Pacific countries to Central Russia will shift to our Deep Sea routes. The rates will be very competitive,” he said.
According to him, the successful expansion became possible thanks to the investment strategy. “The model taken as a basis in 2020 with the entire all net profit invested in assets, has already justified itself. Now, in a declining market, we continue to increase the revenue and the net profit due to the fact that we increase volumes and replace the partners which have left. We do not reject this model, we continue to invest the maximum amount of funds in fixed assets. We continue to expand and improve our fleet. In terms of the fleet, we still have space to grow. We are now actively involved in work in the north-south direction. We are discussing the establishment of our own fleet in the Caspian Sea,” he said.
According to Andrey Severilov, the company is developing rapidly amid the fall of freight rates. “Freight rates are going down. They are 50-60% lower than the peak values. Despite the rates fall, they have already reached a reasonable balance and stabilized, we believe,” concludes the head of FESCO.
