The volume of goods handled by the companies of Sovfracht-Sovmortrans Group in the calendar year 2010 is expected to reach 31 million tons, which corresponds to last year's level, the Group’s press release said.
Container shipments by the Group are reported to be around 65,000 TEUs, or 14% more than a year earlier. Trucking, a new business direction of the Group is expected to demonstrate a nearly 60-percent surge in freight traffic volume year-on-year, with 24,000 truck rides.
Total sales of the Group in 2010 should exceed by 24% operational results of a year earlier, to 28.8 billion rubles.
According to the Group it implemented in 2010 a program to streamline its assets infrastructure. The company had pulled out of several projects through the sale of majority stakes in JSC Yeisk Seaport and CJSC Interferrum-Metal (St. Petersburg). The Group kept two port stevedoring assets (JSC Astrakhan Commercial Sea Port and a stevedoring service jointly with Commercial Sea Port of Ilyichevsk at the dock No 10), as well as 5 container terminals, 3 in St. Petersburg, 1 - Ilyichevsk, and 1 - in Odessa. The Group acquired new asset – a property complex of St. Petersburg-based Predportovy container terminal. In addition, the board of directors of Sovfrakht approved the investment agreement signed last year with the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan on the creation of a container yard as part of a project for construction of Sviyazhsky interregional multimodal logistics center. The Group intends to invest in this project more than 1,5 billion rubles.
Besides, the Group has developed new business directions. In 2010, several companies joined the Group, including ABT Optima LLC (51%, of domestic ‘door-to-door’ FMCG goods deliveries), LLC Transzernoservis (49%, a controller of grain supplies on the St. Petersburg Mercantile Exchange), LLC Sovmortrans, Minsk (100%, container traffic).
In 2010, the Group continued to acquire the rolling stock and increased its own gondola car fleet by 325 units. Overall, the companies of the Group operate a fleet , their own or leased, of 9,273 rail cars. In addition, the Group secured a line of credit from Sberbank Leasing in the amount of 1,8 billion rubles for the rolling stock expansion.
The Group plans through the acquisition of controlling stock in one of the largest Ukrainian railway operators to expand in 2011 the range of services in Ukraine, including the services for transshipment of petroleum products in the Black Sea ports.
In 2011, the Group's management expects improved financial performance, including through the acquisition in 2010 of assets, the growth in business volume and improved market conditions.