FESCO expanding network of southern routes, planning deep sea routes to St. Petersburg

MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax) - The FESCO Transportation Group, whose parent company is PJSC Far East Shipping Company , is expanding the geography of container services between Russia and Turkey, and also plans to add a route to India and launch a sea line on the deep sea route from China to St. Petersburg, FESCO co-owner and chairman of the board Andrey Severilov told reporters.

"In April we launched the Istanbul-Novorossiysk line, in October we put a container ship capable of carrying up to 712 TEU on it. Most likely at the beginning of next year we will introduce a second vessel, and in March or April we plan to start operations from the port of Mersin, this is being worked on now," he said.

"As concerns India, we expect to launch sea service in March-April 2023. We are now in the final stage of development, we are selecting a vessel," Severilov said.

After the opening of the first deep sea route from China to Istanbul and further to Novorossiysk this year "there are plans for a similar route to the port of St. Petersburg," he said.

One more strategic direction for the group is the development of transportation between Russia and the countries of South-East Asia. "This year the service from Vladivostok to Vietnam - to the ports of Ho Chi Minh City and Haiphong, with a call in China - has proven a good one. The idea is to use ports in Vietnam to consolidate cargo from different countries of the region - Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar. Two ships are already operating there, and in February-March next year we plan to put a third ship on this route," he said.

FESCO is one of Russia's largest operators of port infrastructure with an integrated railway and logistics business. The group manages a container fleet of more than 100,000 TEU, and a fleet of fitting platforms exceeding 10,000 units. The fleet consists of 22 vessels, mainly operated on their own shipping lines.