FESCO and Russian Railways launch transit service for delivery of goods from Japan to Europe through Russia
FESCO Transportation Group and JSC RZD Logistics, subsidiary of JSC Russian Railways, launch the “Trans-Siberian Landbridge”, a joint transit service for express delivery of goods from Japan to Europe through the Russian Far East by the Trans-Siberian railway. According to FESCO’s press release, on May 23, 2019, the test container was dispatched from the port of Yokohama in the presence of Alexander Misharin, First Deputy CEO of JSC Russian Railways.
The intermodal chain of the “Trans-Siberian Landbridge” covers Japanese ports – the Commercial Port of Vladivostok – the Trans-Siberian railway – Brest – points of destination in Europe. The total delivery time is from 19 days depending on port of dispatch, while the sea transportation through the Suez Canal takes about 45 days. The test container with non-hazardous chemical products shipped from the port of Yokohama to Wroclaw, Poland, is to arrive in mid-June.
In the frame of the joint service FESCO provides sea delivery, port handling and container fleet, and RZD Logistics is responsible for the organization of railway transportation.The test shipment allows the parties to work out the transportation technology in order to make the service available to customers in June 2019, and subsequently organize the return transportation from Europe to Japan. It is expected that the “Trans-Siberian Landbridge” will serve for transportation of car components and consumer goods to Europe.
"With this project we open a new page of cooperation with the Japanese business, offering advanced and competitive transportation products. We’ve agreed with the Ministry of Transport of Japan to jointly develop multimodal transportation through the Far Eastern ports of Russia and the Trans-Siberian railway. Over the past 5 years, Russian Railways has invested more than 5 billion dollars in the development of railways in the East of Russia. Transportation volume along this route has increased by more than a third. We see a great potential in cooperation with our Japanese colleagues and the created infrastructure will be used for transportation of goods from Japan," said Alexander Misharin.
"Today, all cargo traffic of 3 million TEU per year between Japan and Europe goes through the Suez Canal. In cooperation with colleagues from Russian Railways, we can offer our customers a faster and more efficient transportation service along the Trans-Siberian railway. Attracting transit cargo to the Russian infrastructure meets both national strategic objectives and objective economic interests of market participants. I'm sure that the “Trans-Siberian Landbridge” will be in demand with Japanese partners and will strengthen and expand our mutually beneficial cooperation," said Alexander Isurin, President of FESCO.
"As a company responsible for the development of international transit at the Russian Railways Holding, we have accumulated a unique scope of competences in this area and are now ready to offer them to Japanese partners interested in the quality delivery of goods to Europe. Our experience in transportation through international transport corridors with India, China, Vietnam and Korea shows that modern shippers are looking for the high delivery speed and multimodal chains. The synergy of requests from Japanese and European businesses and combined capacities of our three companies led to the creation of Trans-Siberian Landbridge and is the key to the successful development of this new service," said Vyacheslav Valentik, General Director of RZD Logistics.
