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  • 2013 May 7

    Container reset

    Last years saw a considerable increase of container capacities at Big Port St. Petersburg and Ust-Luga driven by implementation of several investment projects. The plans claim additional growth while the terminals have already entered a hot competition on cargo.

    Big three

    The major player in container market of stevedoring services in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland is the National Container Company accounting for over 43% of the market as of April 2013. It operates First Container Terminal in St. Petersburg and Ust-Luga Container Terminal in Ust-Luga. Then come Petrolesport and Moby Dik terminals of Global Ports group in St. Petersburg. Their share is estimated at some 38%. The third place in terms of the market share is held by an intensely developing Container Terminal Saint-Petersburg (Sea Port Saint-Petersburg Group) with some 15.5% of the market. The rest 11% of the market is divided between Neva Metal (St. Petersburg, Severstal Group), Rusmarine (St. Petersburg) and Yug-2 (Ust-Luga, Ust-Luga Company OJSC).

    So the main struggle presently involves the first three players: NCC, Global Ports and Container Terminal Saint-Petersburg.

    As IAA PortNews learnt from NCC, in 2013 the company management succeeded in attracting additional container volumes to First Container Terminal from the lines conventionally calling on St. Petersburg port. FCT throughput in April 2013 hit 98,119 TEUs, a 11-pct growth against April 2012. In January-April 2013, FCT throughput climbed by 5.5%, year-on-year, to 352,210 TEUs.

    Meanwhile, the situation of Petrolesport is worse. According to IAA PortNews data, in April 2013, it handled 65,393 TEUs a 3-pct decline against April 2012. To catch up to the leader PLP has to boost container handling by 50%. In January-April 2013, PLP decreased its results by 5.5% to 251,860 TEUs. As of the date of this article publication, no comments on the throughput decline could be obtained from Global Ports. As may be supposed, it was caused by the shift of some PLP cargoes to other facilities including those of FCT.

    It should be noted, that Petrolesport location is not very favorauble, in our opinion. Direct approach to it is blocked by Krivaya Dam, the demolition of which was planned long ago by the port reconstruction programme. However, experts and ecologists are not sure in this project feasibility. 

    The demolition of Krivaya Dam in Big Port St. Petersburg is estimated at over RUB 10 bln, Andrey Yurchenko, head of the port Administration’s Service on navigation and environment safety, said at the VI annual international conference Trilogy in St. Petersburg. High costs are explained by the necessity to take away and bury large volumes of contaminated soil, which makes this project economically impractical. Representatives of environmental organizations, in their turn, expressed concerns in respect of the dam demolition, which, in their opinion, can harm the environment.

    As for Container Terminal Saint-Petersburg, its container throughput in January-April 2013 surged by approximately 80% as compared with the same period last year, having reached 131,800 TEUs. We think it should be attributed, in particular, to considerable volumes from MSC line (over 30,000 TEUs). 

    In the future, the competition between the players can even grow as all of them have investment plans on expanding capacities. NCC advantage is in the territory at Ust-Luga port which provides the company with a possibility of prompt response to market demands. Ust-Luga as a port has a number of advantages against the overloaded St. Petersburg.

    Besides, the outer port Bronka is being dynamically built away from the historical districts of St. Petersburg. 

    Vitaly Chernov

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