St Petersburg congestion
causes operator problems

St Petersburg has become a success as the gateway to the Russian market. An increasingly large number of containers have been shipped into the port and its various container terminals. In fact the growth rate for containers was more than 50 per cent for some terminals in the area. This is also part of the problem as it was at the beginning of January 2007. In the last couple of months of 2006 there was serious congestion in the port terminals, causing the liner and feeder operators great concern in trying to solve the problem.

Containers
Container turnover grew by 20.7 per cent in 10 months last year, metals and metal scrap by 5.6 per cent and general cargo by 14.7 per cent. The port handled 4.9 per cent more refrigerated cargo and 2.4 per cent more grain than during the same period of 2005. Handling of other cargo decreased (figure 1).

At the end of September 2006 Big Port handled its millionth TEU, two months earlier than in the previous year. After 10 months the container turnover of the port is 1,168,033 TEUs, i.e. a growth of 28 per cent compared to the previous year.

Container turnover at First Container Terminal (PKT) grew in January–October by 22.2 per cent up to 725,650 TEUs. Petrolesport (PLP) handled 252,441 TEUs (+59.3 per cent) and Moby Dick handled 124,568 TEUs (+35.1 per cent). Sea Port of St Petersburg increased its handling of containers by 25.5 per cent (up to 31,050 TEUs), Baltic Transportation Systems (BTS) by 57 per cent (up to 2,044 TEUs) and Transport and Timber Commercial Centre (KTsTL) by 46.8 per cent (up to 461 TEUs). 880 TEUs, 13.8 per cent more than in the same period of 2005, were handled in the Vasileostrovskyi district of the Leningrad River Port (Lenrechport). Only Rusmarin-Forwarding showed decreased handling of containers in the 10 months of 2006, down by 25.1 per cent to 30,939 TEUs (Figure 2).

	During the past year the St Petersburg feeders have been full when leaving Hamburg. Here is Veersedijk sailing for the Danish operator Unifeeder. Photo: Bent Mikkelsen

Facts
As can be seen from the facts and figures above, the number of containers is extremely high and it is a problem for the whole system. Almost all container terminals have too little space for storage, so the problem has increased further after the celebration of Christmas and the Russian New Year. In the middle of January congestion is such that 10 large feeder vessels of 1,000 TEUs in size have been lying on the roads of St Petersburg for five days, some 10 days, and one feeder up to 12 days. This is almost the same time frame as a round trip to Hamburg and Bremerhaven! It is giving the operators a really hard time to make ends meet and find economy in the day rates.

The operators are trying to find other solutions to the problem, like short shipping containers and leaving them in Bremerhaven, Hamburg or Rotterdam, but this solution is shortsighted. The big terminals on the continent are already very crowded too, so they have a tough policy towards the Russian importers. Ship your container to Russia as soon as possible, or pay an extremely high rate for storage. Some of the operators short ship some 500 to 1,000 TEUs per week at the moment.

The big operators on the St Petersburg run are Maersk Line, Unifeeder, MSC, OOCL and Containerships.

In the red again
However the total turnover of the Big Port of St Petersburg has been decreasing for several consecutive months. Only a few types of cargo are growing, the growth rate of containers being the most significant. Meanwhile the handling of oil products, chemicals and wood is going down.

During 10 months of 2006 the cargo turnover of the Big Port decreased by seven per cent down to 44,841 million tons. This amount consists mainly of containers and oil products, –28 per cent (12,544 million tons) and 24.4 per cent (10,921 million tons), respectively.

//Anna Novikova, freight.ru
//Bent Mikkelsen

Latest update 24-01-2007 8:45

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