FESCO expects Russia’s container market to grow 9% in 2019

MOSCOW, Dec 16 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Far Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO) expects the country’s container market to grow by 9% in 2019 and by 7% in 2020, with the container traffic of the company rising at the same speed, CEO Alexander Isurin told reporters on Monday.

“This year we expect the container market to grow by 9%. In 2020, we expect Russia’s container market to grow by about 7%. On the one hand, the forecasts for the key macro parameters of Russia’s economy for the next year are more positive than in 2019, which supposes improvements in business and consumer sentiment and an increase in imports on the back of that. We also expect transit cargo traffic from Japan to South Korea and Europe to rise,” Isurin said.

“On the other hand, we see that the transit boom through Russia in the China–Europe direction passed in 2018–2019. A similar growth slowdown was registered in exports from Russia to China as China reduced subsidies.

“We have a large market share in Vladivostok, we reach 50% of the market there, and our share in the container turnover in the Far East is 46–47%. So it is wrong to think that we will improve our market share significantly. We expect growth in line with the market.”

Previously, Maxim Shishkov, head of FESCO’s strategic marketing department, told PRIME that the container market increased by 10% on the year to 4.302 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in January–October.

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