A year has not passed since operation of the Ventspils – Travemunde line was started, while the cargo flow and clients take advantage of using our services already on a regular basis. Ferry transportation is only a little part of the range of services we offer. Latvian-Finnish Maritime Agency (Lat-Finn Agency) Director Vladimir Stepanov further comments on development of forwarding services, door-to-door delivery and combined transportation.

Trucks to Kazakhstan

Truck deliveries to Middle Asia have been showing good rise in figures. Development of Kazakhstan economy is boosting and in every day life it reflects in rise of purchasing capacity of the community, e.g. purchase of vehicles. VentLines and port of Ventspils provides for a tailor-made scheme of different type of vehicles delivery from Europe to Kazakhstan. And the shipping volumes are constantly growing. However, just like any other type of cargo, transportation of the technique has its own specifications. Our experience proves that vehicles' transportation by trucks from Europe to the Republics of Middle Asia is much more expensive than shipping by seaways from Germany. Embarkation and shipping of the vehicles is committed due to definite technology taking into account all nuances of the shipment. One operator is in charge of the whole process of the vehicles' shipment from Europe to Kazakhstan, which ensures lower transportation cost and guarantees safety of the cargo. As per our calculations, transportation expenses are reduced by 35% following this scheme in comparison to carrying vehicles on trucks. Every month we deliver approximately 200 vehicles to Kazakhstan. Shipments to the Middle Asia are performed on weekly basis as soon as a party of cargo is set. The port terminals in Germany and Ventspils (Latvia), as well as ferry line operate without delays. Shifts of the schedule may occur only due to delay of railway wagons. This is a problem of all post-soviet region, not only Ventspils. All ports suffer from the deficiency of the railway rolling stock, and this issue in other terminals is just as topical as in Ventspils.

Around Byelorussia

As it is well known, ferry line operators may apply considerable discounts to the forwarders, who use the ferry services regularly. Due to this fact and taking into account shipping of expensive cargo from Western Europe to Russia forwarders (using the ferry) can save on escort expenses in Poland and Byelorussia, as well as win on keeping off queuing on the borders, actual results in combined traffic may considerably differ from designed ones. For example – the region of North – West Russia, the forwarders there are very active in ferry traffic exploitation on the routes St. Petersburg – Sassnitz/ Luebeck and Helsinki – Travemunde. At the same time the shipment cost from St. Petersburg and back rises for 200 USD in comparison to the land transportation (excluding escort costs in Poland and Byelorussia). Due to the necessity to develop alternative routes and according to the decision of the Board of ASMAP in Kaliningrad, at the moment a special team is being created to represent different subsections of the ASMAP Secretariat where the interested forwarders will join in. Aim of the team is to specify the conditions of shipment and possible use of the operating ferry lines in the Baltic Sea and provide recommendations for the ASMAP members. One of the top questions will imply issue proposed by the ASMAP member Mr. V. Grjaznov to create a united dispatcher's center, which would assist in ferry booking. (According to ASMAP data) V Stepanov: Ferry traffic from St. Petersburg to Germany loses on speed of delivery due to the length of the route and additional call in port of Baltijsk. I believe the ferry traffic we provide is an optimal variant for Moscow and the regions regarding many factors.

Interest of the parties

Unlike well-known ferry lines of a European scale VentLines is a result of a local business efforts, therefore the priorities of our services slightly differ. Our primary aim is to develop regular ferry traffic in port of Ventspils, where the port, terminal and vessel operators have equal share of interest. Every client is important for us, and if one delays, we can even hold back the vessel in the port. Shift in the schedule may comprise several hours, but vessel arrives and departs on the marked days. The traffic is organized so that even in unfavorable weather conditions we adhere to the schedule.

Rise of diesel costs favors ferry business
Competition will become more severe in the sphere of international road haulage by the EU extension and people involved in transport business already consider reality and routes of tomorrow. Labor cost in EU countries varies a lot in comparison to that in the new EU member states. A road-train in EU countries is to make 450 euros profit only to cover all expenses. 250 euros of this sum receives the driver. We also have to take into consideration constant increase of the fuel costs and cost leveling in the EU and the new EU countries, which again favors the ferry traffic, since here we use a much cheaper fuel. To consider other nuances of the truckers' work, one can forecast rise in seaways traffic for trailer transportation without drivers and trucks. Of course, development of such schemes takes time, therefore we as ferry line and port terminal facilities operators are ready to offer our services to develop optimal cargo delivery routes.

Containerization

We also develop various schemes of container shipping between Europe and Middle Asia. Presently we negotiate with several companies to provide the cargo flow on the route Ventspils – Travemunde using own containers. To realize project of a regular container lines with port of Ventspils, we actively look for partners, who are interested to develop Ventspils as a container port. Basically what we need is new partners and different motivation. Many shipping lines have set their priorities for the Baltic Sea region and opened their representative offices, e.g. in Riga, therefore they will be hardly interested to cooperate. So we negotiate with other companies and some logistical outlines of cooperation already appear. However, a port willing to develop container business will be more partner and their client oriented to meet their interests and differ form other terminal. Besides transport infrastructure in Ventspils is already well developed. From containerization point of view at the beginning stage port of Ventspils is to become an additional port of call for some shipping line.

Competition of ports

To speak about competition of ports, today ports and transport companies are very flexible to correspond to the demands of the clients, which is not common to such extent in the EU countries. For instance, cargo handling prices in Finnish ports are much higher than ours. Container flow through Finnish ports remain stable due to one reason: Finland houses representative offices of large Asian manufacturers. To study price figures, port of Ventspils or Riga is more profitable. I believe our flexibility and attractive price policy will be beneficial by the EU extension.


New projects activated

However LAT-FINN AGENCY is actively involved in operation through port of Riga and in half year’s time we have realized several new projects. One of them is SAMSKIP. Icelandic shipping company announced LAT-FINN AGENCY its agent in the region. We try to adapt SAMSKIP to the conditions of the market, which first of all concerns the tariff policy. The second project, already realized one, is operation of a regular reefer container train from ports of Riga and Klaipeda to Middle Asia (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan). Block – trains regularly depart from Riga three times per month depending on cargo arrival in the port, i.e. train schedule is very flexible and is adjusted to the interests of the consigner. Operation of this reefer container train was possible after a change of market conjuncture. Until recently refrigerated meat cargo arrived in Russian ports, where the consignment was unloaded at warehouses and then in smaller lots shipped to Russia and countries of Middle Asia. Since last year when quotas in Russia were applied for meat import and export, sales and shipment of these products to Middle Asia transiting Russia became unprofitable. It made shipment route through port of Riga rather logical. For refrigerated cargo transportation we use our railway platforms, which are adapted for reefer containers' shipment. Presently we have 32 platforms of the kind and plan to double the figure in the nearest future.


For сlient to сhoose

It is historically-bound that LAT-FINN AGENCY provides for cotton transportation from Middle Asia to the global consumer market. Cotton is a seasonal goods, therefore owners of the goods keep up with the market tendencies and respond to the changes. Due to high euro rate cotton export to Europe is not profitable. Still port of Riga remains primary route for cotton shipment to global markets. According to our clients one may determine it by the predictability of the business and observance of the delivery schedules of the goods. Our company is a member of AFCOT (French Cotton Association), which ensures close relations with the entrepreneurs involved in the business, understanding of the market and visualization of its perspectives. To gain recognition and understanding of our services for consigners and operators, LAT-FINN AGENCY passed an audit to correspond the ISO 9001 certificate.