Not an odd-one-out
New ro-ro service starts in Saint Petersburg port today. The line operated by Transfennica LLC will first link Saint Petersburg with the port of Lubeck in Germany. Then the Karolin Russ ferry will start running between the ports of Hamina (Finland), Saint Petersburg (Russia), Antwerp (Belgium) and Tilbury (Great Britain).
Transfennica: to become the third
Before today Saint Petersburg was serviced by two ro-ro lines. The first one is Wesway Shipping Company Ltd. (subsidiary of Sovkomflot OJSC). It links Saint Petersburg with the port of Kil in Germany. The second line is managed by Japanese group of companies - Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Limited (K – Line). Its route is Saint Petersburg – Bremenhafen (Germany). The Volga Highway ro-ro cargo ferry may carry up to 600 of passenger cars.
From October 2 the two ro-ro lines are joined by Transfennica. The Karolin Russ ferry started its first shipping on September 29 in Lubeck. The official date of the line opening is today’s arrival of the ferry to the terminal of on of the largest stevedoring companies of Saint Petersburg port – Petrolesport OJSC. However, both Petrolesport and Transfennica remark that the line’s operation will be started not from the zero level. Transfennica has been already operating at the European market of ro-ro vessels following the fixed schedule between Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Poland and Great Britain, the company explained. Saint Petersburg is to become a new port to call at the line.
According to Denis Negodajev, regional manager of Transfennica, the vessel’ capacity is 7 thou tons or 1600 linear meters. It means we can take 104 trailers onboard, he said.
Evgenij Bashkirov, deputy operations director of Petrolesport OJSC, reported that the ferry would be half-loaded for its first voyage. I think, we’ll be able to take 40 – 45 rolling trailers onboard, while import may amount to about 60 – 80 rolling trailers, he said.
Motorcar terminals for the service
According to the expert’s estimation, today’s demand for import of foreign cars may exceed growth of facilities for car transshipment. According to Evgenij Bashkirov, the advantage of western ports is their specialization on car handling. Ro-ro cargoes are usually stocked in one tier that needs large territories and special equipment. Finnish ports re equipped with specialized platforms for storing motorcars, while or range of goods does not include large amount of cars since Petrolesport can not store passenger cars. So we take «non-standard» rolling equipment, he says.
Today there are four project of sea motorcar terminals are being considered in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Region. Customs broker Russian Transport Lines plans to open ro-ro terminal at Vistino Bay (Leningrad Region). Estimated capacity of the terminal - 250 thou cars per year. To the south of Vistino a multifunctional transshipment complex with annual capacity of 1.8 million tons is being built by Ust-Luga OJSC. According to Company’s management, major part of the cargo will most probably formed by motorcars and rolling equipment. One month ago a new motor-railway ferry complex was opened in Ust-Luga. It also hopes to get part of cargo crossing the region. Oslo Marin group of Companies is finalizing the construction of a multifunctional port terminal Onega in the port of Saint Petersburg, Turukhtannaya Bay district. According to official schedule the project will reach design capacity – 5 thou cars per year – in 2007. Oslo Marin intends to develop an open parking for motorcars and a customs area at the territory of over 2 hectares.
The latest Russian project for construction of ro-ro terminals in the Gulf of Finland is Nissan motorcar terminal. Besides, in 2007 Nissan plans to put into operation motorcar terminal in Kronshtadt. Its capacity is about 40 000 cars per year.
These vast plans of investors for development of stevedoring business focused at motor transportation has certain reasons. Over 60% of all foreign motor equipment being sold in Russia goes via Saint Petersburg port. But the majority of these cars are either second-hand foreign cars or rolling equipment. New cars come to Russia via Finland – about 80% of all foreign cars. Sales volume of foreign cars in Russia to grow this year by about 25% to make almost 500 000 units. So, motor terminals being built in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Region seem to be of high use, though 100% load will most probably not be reached.