Belarusian timber gone global via St. Petersburg

FESCO Transport Group has organized a delivery service for Belarusian exports to the markets of India, Vietnam, and China via a St. Petersburg port. The frequency of train departures on the new route will be up to two container trains per month.

The new FESCO service for transporting timber products from Belarus will include trains sent from Vitebsk station of Belarusian Railway to Avtovo freight station in St. Petersburg. There, the containers will be transferred onto ships and sent by sea to either the Indian port of Nhava Sheva or one of the Chinese ports of Rizhao, Lianyungang, Shanghai, Ningbo, and Yantian. Additionally, the cargo can also be delivered to the Vietnamese port of Haiphong and other Southeast Asian countries including a transfer in the port of Ningbo.

The first batch of timber products departed Vitebsk on a loaded 80 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) train on June 20. The train arrived at Avtovo station two days later. At the Big Port of St. Petersburg, the containers were transferred onto a vessel and on June 30, they set off for the port of Shanghai. The journey takes a total of about 50 days.

The service also includes the return shipment of imported goods to St. Petersburg, Ilya Kapritsyn commented, head of sales for export transportation at FESCO Integrated Transport, a subsidiary of FESCO.

"The decision to initiate this service primarily stems from customers’ demand in Belarus and the opening of the regular Deep Sea-FESCO Baltorient Line (between China and Northwest Russia) in March of this year," explained Ilya Kapritsyn.
He also mentioned that timber products account for a significant portion of the cargo flow shipped from Belarus, but there are plans to expand the range of goods being transported in the future.

Two monthly container shipments with timber cargo are planned to be made. However, in the future, their frequency may increase to four trains per month.

It is worth noting that in early April, FESCO opened a subsidiary called "FESCO BelTrans" in Belarus. The office’s key tasks include managing the company's current railway and intermodal services between Belarus and Southeast Asian countries, Turkey, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, as well as developing new services.

Previously, "1520 International" reported that in April, the group had initiated  auto parts delivery from China to Belarus. The route connected the Chinese port of Ningbo with the Vladivostok Sea Trade Port, from which location the goods have been transported to the neighboring republic by rail.

Victoria Yeletina