CC BY
31Russian Journal of Logistics and Transport Management, Vol.3, No.2, 2016
1 0 ©Elena S. Yudnikova and Svetlana V. Aleksandrova
1Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University
2Eurochem Holding
EVALUATION OF THE RESOURCE POTENTIAL OF MARITIME CONTAINER TERMINALS OF ST. PETERSBURG AND
LENINGRAD REGION (Research note)
Abstract
The study examines the share of port container terminals of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region in the volume of container transport of Russia, as well as provides an analysis of their resource potential and container turnover for the 2015-2016. In this regard, the attempt to formulate the key success factors of port container terminals in the market competitive environment was taken.
Keywords: container traffic, container terminal, operators of maritime container terminals, resource potential.
1. Introduction
In a globalised market, specialisation of labour between countries, and economic sanctions, the further development of international trade and transport is of particular importance. The international transportation market is represented in the network form, highly branched structure with the technological organisation of loading and unloading operations, delivery of goods to the consumer and competition.
The effectiveness of international transport is largely dependent on the availability of appropriate modern transport and logistics system that meet the requirements of clients. The transport and logistics system implies a set of objects and subjects of transport and logistics infrastructure, along with material, financial and information flows between them, performing the function of transporting, storage, distribution of goods, as well as information and legal support of trade flows.
Development of transport and logistics system should be considered as the driving force of the whole economy of the state in the conditions of global instability. Regarding the importance and productivity, the container terminals can be considered as one of the essential components of the world transport system.
2. Formulation of the problem in general terms
Around 80% of international trade is carried by sea transport with the use of containers. Cargo in containers is considered as an eco-friendly, safe and high-margin type of freight. A prerequisite of the container transport is the availability of port container terminals.
In conditions of economic instability, the effective development of container terminals in the seaports of Russia and their competitiveness at the international level is becoming a pressing issue. A particular role in the organisation of container traffic belongs to the North-West Region, where within St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region at least five seaports are located: Big Port of St. Petersburg, Ust-Luga, Vysotsk, Primorsk, and Morskoy fasad.
The aim of the study is to evaluate the resource potential from the standpoint of competitiveness of container terminals in the seaports of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region and identify key success factors in the container market.
3. Analysis of container terminals
Currently, the Russian market of container traffic includes more than 11 operators, their turnover and the proportion is shown in Table 1.
Table 1
Container port container terminals in Russia for 11 months of 2016.
The operators of container terminals in Turnover of Rate of growth/ Share in the
Russian ports containers, decline relative total
thousand TEU to 2015,% turnover,%
1. Holding Global Ports 1180 -18,9 32,5
2. Summa Group 729,14 -1,9 20.1
3. HoldingUCL Port 520,4 45,6 14,3
4. JSC 'Vladivostok ICC' (CPV) 297,55 -5,4 8,2
5. NUTEP Ltd. 208,43 13,8% 5,7
6. JSC NLE 200,08 0,2 5,5
7. OJSC 'Novorossiysk ICC' (NCSP Group) 138,46 -1% 3,8
8. LLC 'Baltic Stevedoring Company' (BSC) 93,05 5,4 2,6
9. JSC 'Sea Port of St. Petersburg' 7,37 11,2 0,2
10. JSC 'Taganrog ICC' 0,8 69,1 0,02
11. Other 254,72 7,0 7,08
Total 3630 1,0 100
Source: Gudok.ru (2016).
The data in Table 1 shows that over 40% of Russian container belongs to operators with container terminals in the ports of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region. These companies are Global Ports, Holding UCL Port, LLC 'Baltic Stevedoring Company' (SBR), JSC 'Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg', and others. This demonstrates the essential role of the North-West Region in the international trade and transport development.
Given the unique location of St. Petersburg, which is considered as a port metropolis, it inevitably became a centre, around which transport and logistics complex of the North-West Region is developed, that, in turn, is focused not only on international transit, but also on the regional distribution. Holding Global Ports, according to the results of work in 2016, is a leading operator of container terminals in the ports of the Russian market with a share of 32.5% of the total container throughput of the country.
Company Global Ports operates five marine container terminals in Russia (i.e. First Container Terminal, Petrolesport, Ust-Luga Container Terminal, Moby Dick in the Baltic Sea, Vostochnaya Stevedoring Company in the Far East), and two in Finland (i.e. Multi-Link Terminals Helsinki and MultiLink Terminals Kotka), as well as to logistics terminals 'Yanino' and 'Logistics-Terminal' near St. Petersburg, which are regarded as dry ports.
The group includes oil product terminal of Vopak EOS in Estonia. Global Ports is also developing a strategic partnership with APM Terminals, a part of the A.P.Moller-Maersk. APM Terminal B.V. has 62 operating port terminals and 160 inland terminals, and offices in 68 countries.
After Global Ports purchased in 2013 the second largest participant of container market - National Container Company (NCC), the company's share in the domestic market of container transportation has become more than 40%. At the same time, the credit load of Global Ports has increased six-fold due to the NCC debt of $ 900 million (Centre of transport strategies, 2016).
The share of Global Ports Holding container terminals, which are located in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region, excluding the remote terminals, is more than 70%. For the second operator, UCL Port Holding, 'Container Terminal Saint-Petersburg' provides more than 98% of container volumes. LLC BSK terminal is a part of OJSC 'Novorossiysk ICC'. Ltd 'Fenics', which is a subsidiary of JSC 'Holding Company' Forum', is the owner and operator of MMPK 'Bronka'. Characteristics of the resource potential of the main port container terminals of the North-West Region are shown in Table 2.
Table 2
Characteristics of the resource potential of the main port container terminals of the NorthWest Region.
The name of the Container The Capacity The The The
container terminal/year of terminal Shareholders throughput of the of container depth number of length of
commissioning container yards, of the reefer the
terminal, TEU per TEU berths, sockets railway
year m tracks, m
First Container Global Ports 1350 31800 11 2905 1029
Terminal/ 1998
Petrolesport/ Global Ports 1000 10500 11 362 8600
1992
Moby Dick Global Ports 400 7500 8,9 504 613
/2002
Ust-Luga Global Ports 2600 16800 13,5 420 3325
Container
Terminal/ 2011
Logistics Park Global Ports 400 10000 сухой 120 2 tracks,
'Yanino'/ 2011 порт 613 m each
Logistics- Global Ports 200 10000 сухой 50
Terminal/ 2011 порт
Container Holding 750 18400 11,4 1150 3000
Terminal St. UCL Port
Petersburg/ 2011
Terminal BSK / JSC 260 5500 9,7 250 -
2002 'NMTM'
MMPK Ltd. 1900 14272 14,4 777 2 tracks
'Bronka'/ 2015 'Phenics' JSC 'Holding Company' Forum' of 535 m each
Total 8860 124772 6538
Note: JSC 'Sea Port of St. Petersburg' because of the small container traffic has not been considered.
Sources: Logist.club (2016), Terminals.spb.ru (2016), Port-bronka.ru (2016), Abi-tr.ru (2016), Moby-dick.ru (2011), Logistika-terminal.ru (2016).
Container turnover of maritime container terminals in Russia for 11 months of 2016 amounted to 3630 thousand TEU, and the total capacity of the existing container terminals of St. Petersburg and Leningrad area amounted to 8860 thousand TEU of a year. Thus, it is safe to conclude that there is not only
enough capacity for the development of container traffic, but also nowadays the excess of capacity.
First Container Terminal (FCT) is one of the largest container terminals in the Russian Federation. FCT is located in the Big Port of St. Petersburg, which is one of the first specialised container terminals in Russia and has the largest capacity of the storage site. FCT is connected by regular feeder traffic with the major European ports - Rotterdam, Hamburg, Bremerhaven, and Antwerp. Regular weekly calls to the harbour are made by world's leading shipping lines: Maersk Line, MSC, CMA CGM, OOCL, Unifeeder, Team Lines, Hapag Lloyd, FESCO ESF, Evergreen, HMM, Hanjin, COSCO, and Yang Ming.
The availability of developed a feeder connections with ports of transshipment in Western Europe allows shippers to use the service of container lines, which does not have no direct vessel calls at FCT terminal: China Shipping, CSAV, Hamburg Sud, APL, Samskip, Swan Container Line, MacAndrews, UASC, SCI, PIL, K -Line, NYK Line, MOL, Maruba, ZIM, and others. Refrigerating container yard of FCT by its capability is one of the largest in Europe (Logist.club, 2016).
JSC 'Petrolesport' (PLP) is a modern industrial-technological port complex, on the territory of which the special container and ferry terminals operate. 'Petrolesport' provides services for handling various cargoes: refrigerator, ferry, timber, general cargo, being one of the leading terminals in the North-West Region of Russia. The terminal provides unloading, storage, forwarding services, cargo handling, placement of them in permanent customs control zone, and a number of other services (Abi-tr.ru, 2016).
Ferry-transshipment complex LLC 'Moby Dick' is located near St. Petersburg (Kronstadt) on the island of Kotlin and specialises on the transshipment of containerized cargo. The terminal is equipped by border checkpoint 'Base Litke, island Kotlin', customs post of Baltic Customs 'Kronstadtsky', as well as other state control organisations (Moby-dick.ru, 2011).
Ust-Luga Container Terminal (ULCT) is the first deep-water container terminal in North-West Russia. ULCT is located 100 kilometres west of St. Petersburg on the territory of a new commercial seaport of Ust-Luga in the Luga Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Location of ULCT allows using a convenient route for delivering containers to Moscow and Central Russia, with access to the federal highway 'Russia' (M10) and railway to Moscow.
The ULCT advantage is two-way approach channel to the port, which provides a continuous flow of vessels and allows to avoid the queues and delays completely. To ULCT regular calls are made by the following container lines: Maersk Line, CMA CGM, Unifeeder, Hapag Lloyd, Team Lines (Terminals.spb.ru, 2016).
Ltd Logistics Park 'Yanino' is a multi-transport-logistics transport node. The Logopark provides a range of services for the storage and handling of containers and other cargoes, as well as organises an overload of freight from one mode of transport to another with the organisation of cargo shipments in the multimodal connections. On the territory of Logistics Park 'Yanino', a customs post 'Yaninskiy' of Baltics customs is located.
The terminal is connected by rail and road transport with the terminals of the Big Port of St. Petersburg, as well as by road with the Kronstad terminal 'Moby Dick'. Railway infrastructure of the terminal is linked with the main lines of JSC 'Russian Railways' through the rail station Zanevsky post. The terminal is directly connected with the Koltushskoe highway, while through the Ring Road the communication is provided with the main federal highways.
CJSC 'Logistics-Terminal' (LT) is a multifunctional logistics centre, providing a full range of services for the processing of container and general cargo. It is the first 'dry port' established on the territory of the Russian Federation. It is located 17 km from the seaport 'Big Port of St. Petersburg' in the Shushary industrial zone and is connected with FCT by the unified IT-system. It provides cargo handling arrived from all marine terminals and any forwarding companies.
Activities of LT are aimed at expansion of the range of services offered by the marine terminal, including the storage of large quantities of goods and the formation of container trains. Logistics Terminal has considerable storage space, the powerful and diverse fleet of handling equipment, well-developed railway infrastructure, and direct access to road and rail public networks, including the M-10 'Moscow-Saint-Petersburg'. On the territory of the terminal, the Pushkin customs post of St. Petersburg Customs works (Logistika-terminal.ru, 2016).
St. Petersburg Container Terminal (CTSP) is a joint venture between UCL Holding B.V. and TIL S.A. It is a modern transport node for transshipment of containers, located in Ugolnaya Harbour of Big Port of St. Petersburg (i.e. the Fourth Harbour of St. Petersburg Big Port). The terminal specialises in the handling of all types of cargo in containers. Since October 2011, the terminal operates in accordance with the new technology of container handling scheme, which facilitates the passage of border procedures. Reducing the time of the commission on ships allows shippers to reduce the costs for demurrage.
Ltd. 'BSK' was originally designed as a combi car ferry terminal. Since 2004, it served as a port operator in the cargo-passenger car ferry terminal in Baltiysk of Kaliningrad Region. Since 2005, the development of freight traffic within the car ferry terminal was organised. In 2014, the construction of a container terminal ' BSK' was completed with the throughput of 400 thousand TEU per year. In 2015, the Company 'BSK' has commissioned an in-depth inspection checkpoint for containers and allocated space for storage of empty containers. 'BSK' terminal is located in the deep part of the non-freezing Baltic Sea, which provides navigation and handling all year round.
MMPK 'Bronka' is situated within the boundaries of the Big Port of St. Petersburg and carries out transshipment of container, oversized and heavy cargo, as well as rolling equipment and goods delivered by ferries. Advantages of MMPK 'Bronka' are the deep-water port, a short approach channel, the connection to the network of federal highways, the location out of the urban infrastructure, and proximity to existing and future industrial zones (Port-bronka.ru, 2016).
For container train service the length of tracks is required at least of 850 m, this requirement does not correspond to the terminal Moby Dick, Logistics Park 'Yanino', MMPK 'Bronka'. The data in Table 2 shows that the largest throughput of the ports of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region is provided by the five container terminals: FCT, PLP, CTSP, ULCT, MMPK 'Bronka'. To assess the resource potential of these container terminals, in the research, the analysis of their throughput was made for 11 months 2015-2016 (Table 3).
Table 3
Dynamics of container throughput of the largest container terminals of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region for 11 months of 2015-2016.
Container throughput, thousand TEU
Container terminals 2015 2016 The rate of growth / decline,%
FCT 517,86 440,73 -17,5
PLP 316,19 274,23 -15,3
CTSP 273,53 512,23 46,6
ULCT 79,14 74,95 -5,6
MMPK 'Bronka'. - -
Sources: Logist.club (2016), Terminals.spb.ru (2016), Port-bronka.ru (2016).
Analysis of the data in Table 3 shows that in the considered period, only CTSP (not the largest terminal by the resource potential) increased its container throughput by 46.6%.As a result of the 1st half of 2016, CJSC 'St. Petersburg Container Terminal' is recognised as the largest in Russia. The key success factors were significant investments in the development of material and technical base, customs orientation, highly qualified personnel, increase in volumes of rail container traffic. For the implementation of development programmes of CJSC CTSP, in the first quarter of 2016, up to 60.9 million Rubles was spent. The considerable sum of the funds (39.5 million Rubles) was devoted to the maintenance and development of port infrastructure, including the works of repair of engineering and industrial objects.
In FCT, PLP, ULCT, which are operated by the holding company Global Ports, the third consecutive year, there is the decline in container handling. Thus,
the competitive situation is changing rapidly. The leading role instead of FCT was taken by CTSP. Also, in the competition, ULCT and MMPK Bronka are actively involved. In the case of a full development of ULCT, it may become the largest and most technologically advanced terminals in Russia (with depth at the berths up to 16 meters and a capacity of 2.6 million TEU per year).
MMPK Bronka began its operations in December 2015. With advantages over FCT, CTSP, PLP, ULCT in terms of a favourable geographic location, proximity to the ring road, availability of modern technologies and the reversal of the approach channel, which saves time to the ship-owner, MMPK Bronka has also offered clients competitive rates. MMPK Bronka is located not far from the markets compared to Ust-Luga, and, in contrast to the terminals situated in almost amidst the historical centre, this terminal has a potential for development of the port area. It additionally has an unused reserve, namely the development of the container transportation by railways.
However, there is a general problem with the St. Petersburg port, which consists in a necessity to design the sequence of the entrance to the sea channel and periodic closure of a dam to protect the city from floods, with corresponding stop shipping operations. Apart from the infrastructural advantages, MMPK ' Bronka' has been equipped with the Electronic Declaration Centre, which was launched in test mode since 01.09.2016, without depriving the rest of the positions of the Baltic Customs of the competence for reception and issue of declarations for goods. It proves the possibility of a new actor entrance to the market of port services at the highest level.
UTLC, MMPK Bronka are also causing a threat to the Finnish and Estonian ports. Thus, representatives of the Finnish ports, GAO 'Tallinn Port' recognise the possibility of losing more than 10% of container traffic, which can be pulled to these terminals. On the whole, the emergence of the new terminal will affect the port services market in the region and increase competition for the customers. However, mainly it concerns the terminal in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region.
4. Conclusions
1. The analysis showed that specific role in the organisation of container traffic belongs to the North-West Region, where only in the container terminals of the port of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region more than 40% of container traffic of Russia is processed.
2. The throughput of port container terminals of Russia for 11 months of 2016 amounted to 3630 thousand TEU, while the total capacity of the existing container terminals of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region equalled to 8860 thousand TEU per year, which is higher by 2.44 times of the annual container throughput. Thus, nowadays there is an excess capacity for the development of container traffic in the North-West Region;
3. The presence of excess capacity for the development of container traffic in the port container terminals of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region creates preconditions for increasing of competition;
4. Inclusion in the competition of ULCT and MMPK Bronka impacted on the market of port services in the region and increased competition for the customer. However, increasingly it concerns terminals in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region, because through the ports of the Baltic states and Finland very expensive goods are forwarded requiring special service, which so far neither ULCT nor MMPK Bronka cannot provide yet.
5. Competitiveness of port container terminals is determined by a set of the main success factors, including an advanced infrastructure, which provides a high level of resource potential; modern container handling technology, information processing; implementation of railway container transportation; services on handling both simple and value-added goods; qualified staff, and customer orientation. With the application of these factors, the competitiveness of Russian container terminals can increase on the international transport market.
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