War fails to stop container flows
The “war of sanctions” has an impact on container market of Russia’s North West region having lead to a slight decline of its container throughput. Meanwhile, there is an increase in the Southern and the Far Eastern basins and experts do not see anything dramatic in the situation.
Baltic basin is pulling down
According to the data provided to IAA PortNews by Morcenter TFC, container transshipment in seaports of Russia climbed by 0.4% to 3.99 mln TEUs in January-September 2014. In particular, the Baltic basin saw a decline of 1.2% to 2.14 mln TEUs, the Azov - Black Sea region handled 566,580 TEUs (+0.7%), the Far East basin – 1.19 mln TEUs (+4.5%).
As for the Baltic basin, the decline of 4.7% was registered in the Big Port St. Petersburg, to 1,796,000 TEUs. Container throughput of port Kaliningrad increased by 8.8% to 261,720 TEUs, while Ust-Luga saw a 2-fold increase to 80,930 TEUs.
The growth of port Kaliningrad should be attributed to the fact that Baltic Stevedoring Company (NCSP Group) is expanding its throughput capacity within the framework of an investment project “Construction of a container terminal able to handle 400,000 TEUs per year” allowing for meeting the demand for container shippings in the exclave. The growth in Ust-Luga is explained by the low basic level and active attraction of carriers to new facilities against the high load of Big Port St. Petersburg.
According to market participants questioned by IAA PortNews in Saint-Petersburg, the main decline was registered in August and September, when food-related counter sanctions were introduced. However, statistics says the largest container terminals also saw a decline in the half-year period so the decline cannot be attributed to the sanctions alone. Fundamental factors, like general decline amid deterioration of macroeconomic situation seem to influence the result.
The second busiest basin, that of the Far East, enjoys a considerable increase which was probably driven by improving logistics and general trend towards boosting of trade with the Asia-Pacific region.
Further developments will largely depend on political decisions. If “counter sanctions” last for a long it can result in partial phase-out of imports (with a negative impact on container terminals). On the other hand, this would facilitate the development of cargo flows from alternative suppliers, like those of the Latin America, which would, on the contrary, support the stevedoring business.
Anyway, the market sees no dramatic changes so far. According to Aleksandr Shimansky, Director General of Morcenter TFC, transshipment of containerized cargo calculated in tonnes increased by 6% in the Russian Federation. There was no considerable reduction of container throughput in seaports, Aleksandr Shimansky said.
It should be noted that foreign ports of the Baltic Sea show comparable results suggesting that Russian stevedoring business does not fall out of the general trends. The port of Riga saw an increase of 1.7% to 287,933 TEUs while the port of HaminaKotka had a decrease of 9.8% to 431,510 TEUs.
Saint-Petersburg is going to obtain new container facilities next year with the port Bronka, the launch of which is scheduled for September 2015. The capacity of its first phase is 1.45 mln TEUs and 260,000 units of ro-ro cargo. Investors expect that the launch of the outer port will let Russia get part of containers entering the country via the ports of the European Union.
Vitaly Chernov
