The company’s flee will number 36 containerships by the end of the year with the fleet of containers to be increased to 160 thousand TEU
FESCO has managed to benefit from the new conditions of the Russian economy and to double the capacity of its container lines, to increase its fleet and the number of services, both domestic and international ones, IAA PortNews correspondent cites FESCO BoD Chairman Andrey Severilov as saying at the Eastern Economic Forum.
According to him, the company has nearly doubled its container lines’ capacity in 2023.
“We coped with the situation that happened in 2022, when the Western majors left our market en masse, and we were forced to urgently find and form an additional fleet and additional containers. At the end of this year, our own container fleet will reach 160 thousand TEU, and the fleet of containerships - 36 units. Thus, FESCO will obviously become one of the top 30 largest maritime operators in the world this year,” - he said.
Having increased its assets, the company intensified its foreign activity: in 2022, a new route was launched to Vietnam, in 2023 - to India, the Philippines and Malaysia. The number of ship calls to China has been increased.
“In 2023 we added new ports - Dalian, Rizhao, Nansha and Shantou. The company’s pride is the opening of a deepsea line from Chinese ports, primarily Shanghai and Zhizhao, with access to the Indian port of Mundra, Saint Petersburg, without entering European ports. The line is active, it is already loaded at almost 100%, its work restores the volumes lost in the port of Saint Petersburg last year,” - explained Andrey Severilov.
According to Andrey Severilov, the main problem of the market today is caused by an imbalance of the container fleet, partly due to seasonal changes and partly to the current distortion of international logistics.
“Today, the fleet of empty containers in central Russia is much larger than in China. This is due to the imbalance of export-import flows. The launching of alternative routes, the development of the North-South corridor and NSR will help solve the problem,” he summarized.