on ferries

As Kommersant has learned, in Luga Bay, on the shores of the Gulf of Finland in the Leningrad Region, a group of investors plans to build a terminal for transshipment of new cars. The terminal's capacity is planned to be 250 thousand cars per year, which is almost 73% of the total export of new passenger cars supplied to Russia through the North-West region. Finnish port workers, direct competitors of the future terminal, say that the prospect of its appearance does not frighten them.
In the area of the village of Vistino, which is located on the Soykinsky Peninsula, washed by the Luga Bay of the Gulf of Finland, the authorities of the Leningrad region are planning to build a whole series of terminals of various profiles. As Kommersant has already written, a pool of investors was formed last year, but the matter has not yet moved forward: Russian Railways OJSC refuses to build a separate railway line to the terminals.
As a source in the administration of the Kingisepp district of the Leningrad region told Kommersant, local officials were approached by a “group of private investors” who notified the authorities that they planned to build a terminal on one of the sites in Luga Bay to service foreign cars imported to Russia. Investors are going to start construction on the site of the SG-Trans company, which intended to build natural gas transshipment facilities, but abandoned its plans and is ready to transfer the land for a new project. SG-Trans itself did not comment on the situation.
The names of the new investors are still unknown. “These people most likely represent more than one company, but act on their own, as individuals,” says a Kommersant source in the Leningrad region government. Project director of the Sea News agency Alexey Bezborodov says that for the construction of a terminal for servicing rolling equipment, an investment of “$100 per square meter without installing cranes” is sufficient. The minimum area of such an object can be 10 hectares, which gives a total cost of $10 million. Such expenses are quite within the capabilities of private investors.
According to Kommersant's information, the terminal's design capacity is 250 thousand cars per year. Let us note that the overwhelming majority of new foreign cars imported into Russia through the North-West are reloaded in the ports of Finland, and then delivered by car carriers to St. Petersburg and Moscow. According to Finnish customs data, 340 thousand vehicles worth €5 billion passed through such transit through the ports of Hanko, Turku and Kotka in 2005.
Market participants evaluate the investors' idea as promising. “The proximity of Luga Bay to St. Petersburg would make it possible to quickly turn around car carriers and reduce prices for delivering cars to consumers,” says Eduard Ezrokh, director of the ferry center of GR Travel LLC. “But the question arises: the ferries will bring cars here, and with what cargo will they go from here?” ?" In addition, Mr. Ezroch says, new foreign cars are leaving Finnish ports not only for Russia, but also for other countries, for example, the Baltics. Therefore, for the terminal to become attractive, according to Mr. Ezroch, it is necessary that cargo can be delivered from Luga Bay not only to St. Petersburg and Moscow, but also in other directions.
Let us recall that in April 2005, the Japanese shipping company K Line already launched a service in Russia for the delivery of rolling equipment from Europe to St. Petersburg. The project was announced precisely as an alternative to Finnish ports. However, as Kommersant has already written, the ferry carries any kind of equipment, just not foreign cars, which still travel through the ports of Suomi. “We are an agent of the shipping line and therefore are very interested in the emergence of a new terminal. Indeed, at the moment, new cars are imported through Finland due to the lack of port facilities. Currently, our ferry goes from Germany to the Finnish ports of Hanko, Kotka and Hamina, where the cars are unloaded, and then they are delivered to St. Petersburg on car carriers, despite the fact that the next port of call is the Northern capital,” Elena Isupova, project manager at MET, told Kommersant.
Finnish port workers are not worried about the possible emergence of a competitor. “We have been transshipping cars for 30 years and have a strong position in this business,” Peter Malmlund, chairman of the board of directors of the port of Hanko, told Kommersant.
IVAN STUPACHENKO,
MARGARITA LINEVA

Newspaper "Kommersant St. Petersburg" No. 42/P dated March 13, 2006, p. 2

Foreign cars will go around Finland