Market growth continued in Q4 2021 (+4.4% y-o-y) resulting in the Russian marine container market achieving record volumes in 2021 of 5.4 million TEU (+7.1% y-o-y), driving growth in both containerised import (4Q 2021: + 4.9% y-o-y, FY21: +11.1% y-o-y) and containerised export (4Q 2021: — 1.1% y-o-y, FY21: +4.2% y-o-y)
As a result of the sharp rise in freight rates in the global container shipping market and a deficit of empty containers globally, during Q4 2021 market players continued to prefer faster container import and export supply chains with the shortest sea leg. As a result, Q4 and FY 2021 market growth was concentrated in the Far Eastern basin (Q4 2021: +13.4% y-o-y, FY21: +14.0% y-o-y) and the Southern basin (Q4 2021: +0.4% y-o-y, FY21: +6.4% y-o-y) while combined throughput of terminals located in Saint Petersburg and the surrounding area declined by 4.6% y-o-y in Q4 2021 and 3.7% y-o-y in FY 2021.
The Group successfully improved market share position in FY 2021 in all its basins of presence with throughput at VSC improving by 14.8% y-o-y FY 2021 and throughput of its terminals in the Baltic Basin declining by 2.3% y-o-y. In total, Consolidated Marine Container Throughput increased by 2.8% y-o-y in 2021 to 1.576 thousand TEUs.
In Q4 2021, VSC operated in an environment of exceptionally high and rapidly changing demand dynamics whilst undergoing a strategic transition back to a 100% container dedicated facility using advanced terminal operating software, which resulted in a temporary decline in volumes in the middle of the reporting quarter. This important transition period ended in November and both VSC and our customers have seen a clear increase in the transparency and manageability of clearance processes and the efficiency of cargo handling. As a result, growth rate of container throughput at VSC slowed down to 2.3% in Q4 2021 while throughput of Group’s terminals in the Baltic Basin in the same period performed better than the relevant market declining by 2.4%. In Q4 2021, Consolidated Marine Container Throughput decreased marginally by 0.9% y-o-y to 385 thousand TEUs.
As previously announced, VSC ceased coal handling in September 2021 enabling the terminal to concentrate on the Group’s core strategic operations of driving container volumes and decreasing its environmental impact. As a result, the Group’s Consolidated Marine Bulk Throughput decreased by 44.8% y-o-y to 0.77 million tonnes in Q4 2021 and by 14.6% y-o-y to 4.33 million tonnes in 2021.
Heavy Ro-ro handling increased by 6.7% y-o-y to 6.4 thousand units in 4Q 2021 and by 24.4% to 25.2 thousand units in 2021. Car handling declined by 25.1% in 4Q 2021 on the back of declining local demand but increased overall in FY 2021 by 27.8% to 104.9 thousand units.
Albert Likholet, CEO of Global Ports Management, commented: “2021 was a very strong year for infrastructure and logistics and growth across all segments enabled the Russian container market to set a new record in volumes. In this year Global Ports not only successfully protected and enhanced our leadership positions in both of the Group’s basins of presence but also successfully set a solid foundation to maintain this strong standpoint going forward.”
Rounding adjustments have been made in calculating some of operational information included in this release. As a result, numerical figures and percentages shown as totals not be exact arithmetic aggregations and other calculations of the figures that precede them.
|
Q4 |
Q4 |
Change |
FY |
FY |
Change |
|||
|
Abs |
% |
Abs |
% |
|||||
|
Global Ports Consolidated Results |
||||||||
|
Consolidated Marine Container Throughput (kTEU) |
385 |
389 |
-4 |
-0,9% |
1,576 |
1,533 |
42 |
2.8% |
|
FCT |
154 |
170 |
-16 |
-9.2% |
628 |
654 |
-26 |
-4.0% |
|
PLP |
98 |
85 |
13 |
14,9% |
399 |
377 |
22 |
5.8% |
|
VSC |
127 |
124 |
3 |
2.3% |
520 |
453 |
67 |
14.8% |
|
ULCT |
6 |
10 |
-4 |
-35,8% |
29 |
50 |
-20 |
-41.1% |
|
Non-containerised cargo |
||||||||
|
Ro-ro (thousand units) |
6.4 |
6.0 |
0.4 |
6.7% |
25.2 |
20.3 |
4.9 |
24.4% |
|
Cars (thousand units) |
22.3 |
29.8 |
-7.5 |
-25.1% |
104.9 |
82.0 |
22.8 |
27.8% |
|
Bulk cargo (thousand tonnes) |
772 |
1, 399 |
-626 |
-44.8% |
4, 330 |
5, 074 |
-743 |
-14.6% |
|
Joint ventures |
||||||||
|
Containerised cargo, kTEU |
||||||||
|
Finnish Ports |
21.0 |
22.2 |
-1.2 |
-5.3% |
77.4 |
97.6 |
-20.3 |
-20.7% |
|
Yanino (inland terminal) |
24.4 |
19.1 |
5.3 |
28.0% |
88.3 |
86.1 |
2.2 |
2.5% |
|
Bulk cargo throughput, thousand tonnes |
||||||||
|
Moby Dik |
52.0 |
47.0 |
5.0 |
10.6% |
269.5 |
226.7 |
42.8 |
18.9% |
|
Yanino |
94.6 |
54.3 |
40.3 |
74.3% |
354.1 |
261.3 |
92.8 |
35.5% |
|
Russian Container Market, kTEU |
||||||||
|
Total Market |
1, 415 |
1, 355 |
59 |
4.4% |
5, 405 |
5, 049 |
356 |
7.1% |
|
Baltics (incl. Kaliningrad) |
634 |
637 |
-3 |
-0.5% |
2, 509 |
2, 431 |
78 |
3.2% |
|
— incl terminals of Saint-Petersburg and area |
517 |
543 |
-25 |
-4.6% |
2, 072 |
2, 150 |
-79 |
-3.7% |
|
Northern Ports |
50 |
48 |
2 |
3.6% |
157 |
162 |
-5 |
-3.0% |
|
South |
224 |
224 |
1 |
0.4% |
847 |
796 |
51 |
6.4% |
|
Far East |
507 |
447 |
60 |
13.4% |
1, 892 |
1, 660 |
232 |
14.0% |