RUSSIA/EASTERN EUROPE\\\


FS Mackenzie – the Russian and UK member of the Famous Pacific Shipping Group global forwarding and NVOCC system - has opened its sixth office in the country, at Vladivostok. The new base will be a platform


to develop import traffic from China, Japan, Korea, the US, Australia and New Zealand though the city’s deep-sea port and airport. Services will include airfreight, container FCL and LCL, break bulk, outsize and special cargo, rail freight, door-to-door deliveries, warehousing and trucking.


Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Novorossiysk. Vladivostok is Russia’s


third


largest ocean gateway and Vostochniy Port is 200km away. The two ports have modern container and conventional cargo facilities, receive regular calls by major lines including Maersk, CMA CGM, APL, Hyundai, KMTC, Sinokor and FESCO, and excellent connections to the hinterland by rail and road. Dmitriy Maslov said: “The


Russian Government is making substantial capital investments in the development of its Far


Issue 1 2014 - FBJ FS Mackenzie launches in Vladivostok


The worst may be


Russian intermodal transport company


potential driven by TransContainer


says that the market resumed moderate growth from March 2013 aſter bottoming out in January- February 2013 and is expected to show middle single-digit growth for the full year. But


looking


(Left to right): Dmitriy Maslov (director, Vladivostok branch) with Urzhumova Svetlana (logistics specialist) and Sidorov Matvey (logistics manager)


office will enable us to control our operations in the region more effectively.” Managing director of


The new branch is headed


by Dmitriy Maslov, who has over


25 years’ experience


with Russia’s largest transport provider, FESCO - most recently as senior manager of its liner and intermodal division. Maslov also spent several years in FESCO’s operations in Vietnam and the US. Initially, there are three staff, but early expansion is anticipated; initially, physical handling and surface transportation are being outsourced. FS Mackenzie


already has bases in Moscow, St Petersburg,


East territories, which are close neighbours to the main Asian exporting countries. This leads us to believe that there will be significant increases in traffic through Vladivostok port and airport, and Vostochniy, in the near future. Through this new office, we intend to develop our LCL service to cover the Russian Far East, and also enhance our


intermodal


solutions for shipments to and from Russia and the CIS. “Taking into account the time


difference with Moscow (7 hours) and London (11 hours), this new


FS Mackenzie CIS, Andrey Soutchkov said that most LCL traffic to the Russian far east was mainly from the Far East and China, via Busan. But traffic from Europe could also be catered for, using less-than-truckload services and then rail via Moscow. “We use rail a lot within Russia,” Soutchkov explained. “For a distance of 9,000km, road is just not an option.” The freight business in Russia


is currently stable, if not exactly booming, he continues. With a population of 140 million and long distances, there will always be a need to move goods around the country, but now there is a growing realisation of the importance of logistics and supply chain, as opposed to mere transport. Companies are realising the need to rationalise their logistics and supply chain. Like all cross-border operators


in and out of Russia, FS Mackenzie is having to grapple with the implications of the effective end of the TIR system in Russia, though at the time of writing it was still far from clear what the final outcome would be. There are alternatives to TIR, Soutchkov pointed out, such as guarantees


issued by insurance companies, which would not necessarily be more expensive but they could lead to congestion on the border if every one had to be individually checked. And while the TIR system could conceivably be dispensed with for traffic into and out of Russia itself, there really was no alternative for goods using Russia as a transit country to or from other destinations. Meanwhile, unification of


customs rules and full integration of Russia into the World Trade Organisation would help reduce costs to industry and would be


an important component


of any drive to improve the competitiveness of Russian manufacturing, Soutchkov considers. Although there is much that still needs to be done in this area – reducing import duties on new manufacturing machinery, for example – FS Mackenzie’s own traffic is not as imbalanced as Russia’ trade statistics might suggest, adding: “We are seeing changes in the amount and type of goods we export from Russia. For example, we had one client who started off by importing nappies from the UK. Then production was moved to Poland and now to Moscow and now they are also exporting out of Russia. “So we are seeing some changes,


although we would like to see more and more. Aſter all, Russia has relatively low labour costs and at the same time a well-educated work force, so we should be very competitive.” Multinational firms are also setting up plants in Russia and beginning to export. For its own part, FS Mackenzie


is planning to expand its office and warehouse network in Russia from its current six locations to cover every city with a population of a million and above, of which there are about a dozen. It also plans to expand its range of third party logistics services.


economy, forward, the


company’s management sees a continuing deceleration in the Russian


reflected in


recent downgrades of economic forecasts released by the Ministry of Economic Development. It also remains vulnerable to external factors. However, it notes improvement


in the rail freight transportation market in the second half of 2013 and the continuing growth in the rail container transportation segment. With scope for price increases


limited in the near term, TransContainer will continue to focus on competitiveness, further improvement of service quality and cost control and business optimisation measures. However, it adds: “In the long


term, we continue to believe that the Russian container transportation market is fundamentally attractive and retains a sustainable growth


consumer


27 over, says rail box firm Russia’s


economic development, further involvement in international trade, WTO accession, in


demand


containerisation.” Investment in rolling


growth and


stock


and terminal modernisation will continue, as will “opportunistic mergers and acquisitions, in line with strategy and subject to changes in the economic environment.” TransContainer is the


leading intermodal container transportation company in Russia, with about 47% of all such business in the country. It owns and operates 25,677 flatcars in Russia and a further 5,080 in Kazakhstan via its


subsidiary


KedenTransService, as well as over 60,000 containers. TransContainer also owns a network of 46 railside container terminals across Russia and operates one terminal in Slovakia under a long-term lease agreement. The Company also operates 18 inland rail-side terminals in Kazakhstan through KedenTransService. The company’s rail container


transportation volumes in Russia for the first nine months of 2013 were 1.07 million teu.


Schenker opens new Czech hub


DB Schenker Logistics has built a new terminal at Rudna, near Prague. The hub, 90,100sq m in total, includes an 8,000sq m hall with 92 cargo doors, including six for jumbo semi-trailers Some 270 employees currently work at the administrative building. Board member for land transport, Karl Nutzinger explained: “Because the new facility is so well connected to transportation routes, it makes transshipment much faster and more effective.” It is also in line with state-of-the-art safety


and environmental standards, he added. The new facility has its own


bonded warehouse and capacity for hazardous materials. It also includes an in-house photovoltaic gas station and a solar-powered system for heating water on the premises. Smart lighting systems, a particularly efficient ventilation and air conditioning system, and a liquefied natural gas station for CNG vehicles also make the facility sustainable.


A Volga-Dnepr Airlines’ An-124-100 ‘Ruslan’ freighter landed in the Russian city of Salekhard for the first time in late November, delivering a 26-tonne turbine for the local power plant.


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