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2023 September 21   14:37

First Container Terminal starts handling containerships of China - Sri Lanka – Russia line

Image ource: Global Ports
The line operates voyages both through the Suez Canal and via the Northern Sea Route

First Container Terminal (FCT, located in the Big Port of St. Petersburg, part of Delo Group’s stevedoring holding Global Ports) handled the first vessel call of Honrise containership of the foreign trade transport and forwarding company Transmasters, according to Global Ports.

Since August 2023, Transmasters has been replacing universal cargo vessels with specialized containerships on international services between the ports in the Asia-Pacific region and St. Petersburg. 

The 198-meter Honrise vessel with a capacity of 1,662 TEU has replaced the Huanghai Advance ship and operate on the China-Sri Lanka-Russia (FCT) route. In addition to Honrise, two other containerships of similar capacity and two feeder vessels operate on the route, transporting containerized cargo between ports in China and Colombo port in Sri Lanka.

Global Ports' Baltic terminals FCT and Ust-Luga Container Terminal (ULCT, located in the Ust-Luga deep-water port in the Leningrad region) have been handling Transmasters' vessels since 2022. The line operates voyages both through the Suez Canal and via the Northern Sea Route. 

First Container Terminal (FCT) operating in Great Port of Saint-Petersburg is one of Russia’s largest Russian terminals. With its covered and open storage facilities, the terminal offers a wide range of services on handling of container, general and dry bulk cargo.

Global Ports’ terminals are located in the Baltic and Far East Basins, key regions for foreign trade cargo flows. Global Ports operates five container terminals in Russia (Petrolesport, First Container Terminal, Ust-Luga Container Terminal and Moby Dik in the Russian Baltics, and Vostochnaya Stevedoring Company in the Russian Far East) and two container terminals in Finland (Multi- Link Terminals in Helsinki and Kotka). Global Ports also owns an inland container terminal Yanino Logistics Park located in the vicinity of St Petersburg. In 2022, consolidated container throughput of the Group’s terminals totaled 992 thousand TEU, consolidated dry bulk cargo throughput rose by 13.7%, year-on-year, to 3.6 million tonnes.

Global Ports’ major shareholder is Delo Group, one of the largest private transportation and logistics holdings in Russia.

Transmasters is an operator of a container service on cargo delivery by sea from China, India and other countries of the South-East and Southern Asia to Saint-Petersburg and back. The company operates a fleet of cellular containerships of 1,662 TEU with a cruising speed of up to 21 knots. It owns a fleet of containers and trucks. China – Colombo route is 10 days long, Colombo – Saint-Petersburg — 22-23 days.