Rosatom sees Fesco takeover as way to develop Northern Sea Route - CEO
MOSCOW. Nov 10 (Interfax) - Rosatom's takeover of the Far Eastern Shipping Company (Fesco) , flagship company of Fesco Transportation Group, will enable the state nuclear corporation to achieve the objective of creating a global shipping corridor along the Northern Sea Route (NSR), Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev said in an interview with the host of the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin. program, Pavel Zarubin, on TV channel Rossiya 1.
President Vladimir Putin issued a decree earlier this week to transfer state-held shares in Fesco to Rosatom.
Asked what the transfer of Fesco shares to it means for Rosatom, Likhachev recalled that the state corporation is the sole infrastructure operator for the NSR, responsible for icebreaker escorts of ships and managing all ship traffic along this route, and also responsible for some deliveries of goods to remote northern communities.
"We understand that it's impossible to limit our work only to the geographical coordinates of the NSR. We're talking about the whole northern corridor, both in terms of connecting Russia and in terms of organizing marine transit. Therefore, the issue of organizing both internal shipments, northern deliveries, and transit requires support with certain assets," Likhachev said.
"The president considered Fesco to be such an asset, since this is one of the main global players, including in container shipping. Fesco plays a key, one can say decisive, role in northern deliveries. And we will carry out the president's decision, understanding that this is not just a great honor, but also a big responsibility," Likhachev said.
He said the NSR needs to be turned into a new global logistics corridor that will compete with other international shipping routes.
"Our objective is to reorient a significant portion of existing global marine shipping between the growing economy of Asia, Southeast Asia, and the perhaps conservative but fairly large market of Europe. Offer the most attractive arrangement in economic terms for these two points of global development," Likhachev said.
"This is difficult to do without our own logistics asset. We have such experience, the company Delo has a very serious alliance with us, but this is primarily overland transportation. But in transportation related to marine traffic, here Fesco has a very large portion of the global market, absolutely dominant in the interests of Russian shipping," Likhachev said.
He added that Fesco plays an important role in delivering Rosatom cargo to construction sites around the world.
"And this synergy and the president's instructions to develop the NSR at an accelerated pace led to the decision that the president made, that was published," Likhachev said.