Although the entire shipping market is bleak, the Russian route pattern is undergoing a series of changes. New players have been increasing their capacity deployment to meet the strong demand of the market.
Linerlytica, a shipping consultancy, wrote in its weekly newspaper: "Congestion in Russia's Far East ports of Vladivostok (Vladivostok) and Orient Port (Vostochny) has increased the demand for new services from Asia to Black Sea and Baltic ports such as Novorossiysk (Novorossiysk) and St Petersburg (St Petersburg), pushing up freight rates on Russian routes. A series of shipping companies are deploying and launching new routes, including new shipping companies such as SAFETRANS and OVP SHIPPING, as well as TORGMOLL/NEW NEW and REEL SHIPPING, which continue to increase the deployment of capacity on Russian routes, while some established Russian companies continue to purchase ships to expand capacity."
's most ambitious new player is the Hong Kong-registered Sea Liquid Shipping. The company launched its first liner route from China to Vladivostok in June 2022, and entered the Black Sea five months later, launching the China to Novorossiysk route.
Since then, Haiyangtong Shipping has launched a route from China to St. Petersburg, deploying "Stonewell Glory" (2005, 3081TEU), "Allseas Pioneer" (2003, 1878TEU) and "Heng Hui 2" (1993, 3469TEU). At the same time, the company plans to upgrade the route to weekly flights in April and then to weekly flights.
According to the Alphaliner's latest data, in the global liner company capacity of 100, the sea liquid shipping ranking quickly rose to 53rd, a total of 7 ships, 16747TEU.
In addition, another new shipping company, Safetrans Line, has launched a direct route between St. Petersburg and China and plans to provide weekly operations. Dubai-based Reel Shipping launched a service in January this year to take advantage of the high demand for Russian imports from Asia to transit Damietta Egypt. The route deployed 5 1730 TEU to 2700TEU container ships.
According to Linerlytica, Mediterranean Shipping (MSC) is the only large liner company that maintains a considerable scale on Russian routes. It has regional transportation performance on all three Russian gateways and has the largest share on Black Sea and Baltic routes.
at the same time, Russia's established operators continue to buy ships from the secondary market. Far East Shipping Company (FESCO) received the "Kapitan Shchetinina" (2023, 2471TEU) resold by Chinese shipowners from Zhoushan Changhong International at the end of February and deployed it on the far East route from China to Russia. It is reported that this ship is the third ship FESCO has acquired from Chinese shipowners in recent months.
Previously, FESCO bought "Acacia Ming" (2010, 704TEU) and "JRS Corvus" (2008, 698TEU) for 10 million US dollars and 8 million US dollars respectively.
According to Alphaliner's latest data, among the world's top 100 liner companies, FESCO ranks 40th fast, operating 24 ships and 31649TEU.
Another Vladivostok-based shipping and multimodal transport company, Crystal Alliance, became the new owner of the "Crystal St Petersburg" (2000, 1740TEU). According to reports, the Malaysian operator MTT sold the ship for 10 million US dollars in November 2022.
Linerlytica analyst Tan Hua Joo added: "Due to the strong demand for goods, the Russian market is booming, the port of Vladivostok is currently severely congested, and shipping companies are opening new routes to the Black Sea and Baltic Sea gateways. No matter which route, the price is very high, the minimum is 6000 USD/FEU."
Linerlytica estimates that there are currently 89 ships, totaling about 92000 TEU capacity, serving Russian routes.
Source: Shipping Network