FESCO to establish feeder container line operator in Baltic - FESCO ESF Limited
On June 26, 2007 FESCO Transport Group and ESF group of companies reached the final agreement to create a joint venture FESCO ESF Limited, where FESCO holds a 70% interest, the company reports. The new company will own assets of ESF and its affiliates that relate to ESF Euroservices - Baltic feeder services between Continental Europe and Russia.ESF Euroservices is a feeder line container operator working since 1995 and offering fully integrated container shipping and handling services between ports in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany on one side and Russia, Finland and Baltic States on the other side. ESF Euroservices currently operates three container lines: Rotterdam/Hamburg/Antwerp - St.Petersburg; Hamburg - Kotka/Helsinki; Hamburg - Klaipeda/Riga. ESF Euroservices has rep offices in the ports of Rotterdam, Antwerp and St.-Petersburg, as well as a network of agencies in Hamburg, Helsinki, Hull, Riga, Klaipeda, Tallinn to name few. ESF total 2006 container operations volume exceeded 130 thousands TEU."The establishment of FESCO ESF Limited is yet another step in the implementation of the Group's strategy to create a national leader in container operations, able to offer a full spectrum of integrated services. By completing this transaction, we made a strategically important entry into the Baltic line container shipping market." - said Evgeny Ambrosov, FESCO President and CEO. In his opinion, "…this, combined with FESCO's access to stevedoring assets in the region and our rail transportation capacity, will allow FESCO to offer its clients an intermodal service "short sea - port - transportation" in the strategically important Baltic region - Russia's main gateway for containerized imports" ESF Euroservices B.V. is a shortsea container liner operator offering a fully integrated service relating to container transportation and handling: Port-Port Shipments; Feeder & shippers owned container services; Door-to-Door deliveries.FESCO Transport Group is created on the basis of Far Eastern Shipping Company - one of the largest and oldest transport companies in Russia, founded in 1880. Today the group comprises Far Eastern Shipping Company; Transgarant (one of Russia’s largest railway operators specializing in transportation of dry bulk cargo); Russkaya Troika CJSC (JV with Russian Railways OJSC, specializing in railway transportation of containers); National Container Company (leader at Russian market of container terminals); partnership project with First Quantum; TIS (covering 30% of Transsib container transportations); Inkotek-Trans-Servis (container transportation in the North-West region of Russia); DalRefTrans (transportation of refrigerated cargo); vast network of agent companies covering Russia, CIS, Asia and Europe.
Companies of the Group provide marine shipping, rail transportation and trucking services, stevedoring services at the company’s terminals in Russian ports, icebreaker assistance to vessels in the Far East of Russia, Eastern sector of Arctic, Baltic Oceanographers and Antarctic, and services biggest oil and gas companies in the Far East. As of beginning of April 2007, market capitalization of the company made $1,088,880,230. FESCO’s fleet numbers 68 vessels including 24 container carriers. 4 ice-breakers are under the Group’s operative management. FESCO’s container fleet exceeds 35,000 TEU. First Container Terminal (port of St. Petersburg), Novorossijsk Container Terminal (NUTEP, port of Novorossijsk), Iljichevsk container terminal (Ukraine), ground terminal for refrigerated containers in Vladivostok, the project of Baltic Container Terminal in Ust-Luga and container terminal Shushary in Leningrad region.
