Parnas to facilitate grain exports
Actually, St. Petersburg was never considered a transit region for grain cargo - there are no specialized port terminals or harbor silos. However, the situation may change with the development of off-dock terminals, transshipping grain into containers. Parnas-APK told PortNews about the company’s plans for the expansion of such services.
Grain-laden boxes or bulkers
After Russian government lifted embargo on the export of grain from the country the commodity started pouring into the world market, regaining its nearly lost position mainly on Asian market where the demand for grain is quite high. However, Russia still faces shortage of modern logistics facilities for handling the exports volume.
As for St. Petersburg, grain could be exported from here, but small volume of one-time deliveries does not stimulate investment in large specialized marine grain terminals and silos. Actually, grain shipments from St. Petersurg on board bulkers intended for carrying large volumes, in most cases have turned out to be ineffective here since it requires accumulation of large quantities of cargo and involvement of large number of specialized rail transport.
However, there is a way out of the situation. It lies in the development of "dry ports" (off-dock terminals) that would provide services to shippers by packing the grain cargo into containers. Firstly, the use of the container allows shipment of of small quantities of grain, and secondly, does not require specialized marine terminals and construction of harbor silos and thirdly, allows utilization of empty boxes of container lines for further shipment of goods for export. The fact is that chartering of containers for grain exported to customers in Southeast Asia is cheaper than that of a dry bulk carrier, as the boxes would go back from Russia empty.
An increase in bulk cargo exports (fertilizers, scrap metals, etc.) has driven the level of utilization of empty containers but only to about 30-40% of total containers that are sent back empty. Therefore, overseas container lines are very interested in the promotion of services of companies engaged in repacking of cargo into containers, including grain.
Experts estimate that shipment of grain from St. Petersburg to Southeast Asia by dry bulk carriers is economically cost-effective only when the vessels would be hauling not less than 12,500 tons, while the utilization of containers reduces the load volume to 1-2 tons. Of course, grain shipment in containers adds costs of loading grain cargo into container and related services, but eventually the cost of grain transportation in boxes per ton is comparable to the cost of delivery by dry bulk carriers.
Besides, there is no need to form a large consignment, other advantages of grain-laden containers, which makes it much easier to arrange ‘door-to-door’ delivery of the small volume of cargo. In this case, it becomes possible to increase the margin of transactions through direct supplies to foreign consumers, bypassing the brokers in the destination country.
Currently, the service for packing grain into containers in St. Petersburg is being providing by Managing Company Parnas-APK, which is the owner of a specialized indoor facility for loading grain in bulk into containers. The facility is located in the northern region of Saint Petersburg at the silo of Rezervkhleb.
As the company’s officials say Parnas-APK provides a full range of services for export / import transportation logistics of grain cargo. The existing technology allows packing a 26-ton load of grain into a 20’ container, to its maximum payload.
The market experts say they expect grain exports from Russia to South-East Asia to grow in the future that entails the need for availability of appropriate infrastructure in transit regions of the country.
"The volume of production and export of Russian grain has grown considerably over the past years. Grain exports annual volume from Russia is expected to be at 40-45 million tons by 2020. Grain deliveries in the amount of 5-6 million tons a year from Russia to Southeast Asia remains to be a priority," said Deputy General Director United Grain Company Aram Gukasyan, who participated in October in the Russian-Japanese negotiations on expansion of grain exports from Russia to Asia.
This gives hopes that St. Petersburg-based off-dock terminal will see an increase in grain cargo transit through the city. Upon the terminal expansion the facility will also be able to pack food and other bulked cargo (flax, peas, millet, mustard, etc.) in containers using special equipment.