St. Petersburg Port To Focus On Latin American & East African Trade

The Port of St. Petersburg is expanding export support measures and is looking to develop subsidised container shipments to Brazil, Venezuela, Tanzania and Cuba, according to Kirill Soloveitchik, the city chairman of the Committee on Industrial Policy, Innovation and Trade.

It is planned that at the first stage, shipments will mainly be carried out in bulk. The Export Support Centre will cover the costs associated with the consolidation of goods, as well as their storage and customs clearance. Soloveitchik said that “Priority areas such as Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil, Senegal and Tanzania are being implemented. In fact, this is a free service for the exporter: the Export Centre pays for the container freight, agency support and temporary storage for the period of cargo consolidation at the place of departure.”

The subsidised service will combine goods from different customers into a combined cargo. According to Soloveitchik, the priority will be small batches of goods that do not require special storage conditions and special temperature conditions.

The Export Support Centre will cover all costs associated with cargo consolidation, agency support, shipping container freight, customs clearance, storage and delivery of goods from St. Petersburg. This will allow the city’s exporters to significantly reduce the cost of delivering their goods to new markets, which will lead to a significant increase in their competitiveness.

At the moment, such support already covers four ports in China – Shanghai, Qingdao, Ningbo and Nanshu. St.Petersburg was badly hit by the sanctions imposed by the EU in particular and the cancellation of all Western shipping line services to the port. It is now moving to service alternative markets.

In 2023, the volume of exports from St. Petersburg to the so-called “friendly” countries increased by 83%. In Q1 2024, this figure increased by another 52.4% compared to the same period last year.