Container throughput via marine terminals in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast ports is starting to gradually restore, Global Ports Chief Commercial Officer Igor Pukhov said speaking at a conference in Moscow this week.
As per Global Ports’ estimation, in April 2023 the ports located in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast handled 91 thouasnd TEU, which is slightly more than a half (namely, 52.6%) of the average monthly traffic via those terminals during 2021, which made 173 thousand TEU.
After a number of global container lines exited Russia in spring 2022, the container market in the Russian Northwest was declining for two quarters. According to Global Ports, the market hit the bottom in September when St. Petersburg and Ust-Luga handled 31 thousand TEU. Starting October 2022, container traffic was slowly reviving making some 50 thousand TEU a month till January 2023. Since the start of 2023, both St. Petersburg and Ust-Luga have been demonstrating a steady upward trend compared to September 2022.
Although the Russian Northwest container market is still much below the pre-crisis level, the demand for stevedoring services in the Baltic services is growing due to the entrance of new container carriers. As per Global Ports’ estimation, at present 14 container lines are operating via the ports of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast.
80% of the lines currently calling at St. Petersburg and Ust-Luga are newcomers to this market, with Russian, Chinese and Middle Eastern companies among the new entrants.
Photo: courtesy of Global Ports