Meeting of the CCTT Multimodality working group

On July 29, 2021 the first meeting of the CCTT Multimodality working group under chairmanship of German Maslov, vice-president of the linear-logistic division of FESCO Transport Group was held in videoconference format.

The meeting was attended by more than 100 representatives of railways, seaports, operators and forwarders, as well as representatives of transport and logistics companies from Russia, Belarus, China, Germany, Japan, Republic of Korea, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.

Delegates discussed the current situation, constraints and measures for the development of Trans Eurasian rail and multimodal container transport services. The main theme of the discussion was multimodal container service development for cargo transportation from/to Japan, Republic of Korea and China via Far-Eastern ports. At the session participants of Working Group taking into consideration growing freight rates on maritime lines noted increasing attractiveness and competitiveness of Trans-Siberian multimodal services for cargo owners from Korea, Japan and China. They are also noted prospects related to the increase of rail and multimodal container traffic between Asia and Europe.

In the framework of the meeting Head of the Representative Office of the Japan Association for Trade with Russia and CIS (ROTOBO) Mr. Daisuke Saito made a presentation ‘Economic relations between Russia and Japan’. Secretary General of Trans-Siberian Intermodal Operators Association of Japan (TSIOAJ) Mr. Kunio Orihara presented information about the results of pilot shipments from Japanese ports to Europe via Vladivostok and made suggestions on further Trans-Siberian rail container shipment developments.

Representatives of FESCO, RZD Logistics, TransContainer noted current trends and prospects for the development of multi-modal rail container traffic through the Far Eastern ports and the need to increase the capacity of rail and port infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted cargo flows along the Trans-Siberian Railway. Representatives of Japanese transport-logistical associations estimated the future of Russian-Japanese trade trends, possibilities of Japanese companies to enter the Russian market. They are also expressed their readiness to cooperate with Russian forwarding companies on usage of alternative multimodal routes between Asia and Europe through ports of St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad.

Participants of the meeting noted the special role of the CCTT platform for establishing contacts between cargo owners, operators and forwarders, holding constructive discussions on actual transport and logistics issues in order to develop new optimal solutions.