Shippers who transport cargo via Northwest Russia, and in particular via the Big Port of St. Petersburg, will be able to save at least 10 percent to 15 percent on shipping costs, thanks to a new community within port boundaries that unites major, local stevedore companies and forwarders.
The new community, approved by the Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service and the Federal Customs Service, will work to speed port operations and and decrease shipper costs.
Currently, the charge to handle a TEU at the Big Port is $480 and up, depending on the ocean carrier. Weighing costs an additional $140 to $150 per TEU.
Yuri Kovalev, board member of GPU VED HERMES State Enterprise — a public association of leading stevedore and freight companies in Northwest Russia, and one of the major initiators of the new community — said the new institution will follow the example and experience of Germany’s Port of Hamburg and Finland’s Kotka seaports, where such communities already exist, and specialize in and lobby local/state bodies regarding the interests of stevedores and shippers.
Kovalev added that the new community will also take on bureaucratic issues shippers and forwarders encounter at the Big Port, as well address arbitrary actions by regulators. Regarding the latter, the number of such cases remains high.
Moreover, shippers — members of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs — confirm that arbitrary actions by Russian regulators remains one of the major reasons for shipper losses, both in terms of time and money, during customs clearance of cargo at St. Petersburg and at other Russian seaports.
The Russian Association of Commercial Seaports (FACS) estimates that bureaucratic actions by various state officials involved in Russian port operations usually increase shippers’ costs by 7 percent to 17 percent.
FACS experts add that there are even cases of extortion of additional payments from shippers by the Russian Customs Service officers and by other regulators. These additional fees are usually accompanied by threats of additional checks of cargo and by wrongful arrests.
