Northern countries will seek
their share of freight
Zita Tallat-Kelpsaite
TransBaltika for the sixth time
The Sixth International Conference TransBaltika
- 2001 held in Riga was opened and the first plenary session was directed by the
Minister of Transport of Latvia Anatoliy Gorbunovs. He presented the first report about
the place and role of Latvian transit routes in the international transport
infrastructure.
Reports were presented by First Adviser of Vice-Governor of St.
Petersburg Boris Usanov, Vice-President of Eurasian Transport Union, professor Yuriy
Shcherbanin, President of Latvian Transit Business Association, Chairman of Duma of
Ventspils Town Aivars Lembergs, Deputy Head of Transport System Co-ordination Department
of the Ministry of Transport of Russia Valeriy Shaikin, Head of transport programmes for
the Baltic Region of the World Bank Cezar Keiros, representative of the International
Co-ordination Board on Trans-Siberia Transportation Boris Lukov, etc. The first reports
inspired the participants for hot debates and further polemics.
Russia as a Eurasian transit bridge
Speaking about new transport corridors
B.Usanov emphasised that at the conference in St. Petersburg, where representatives of 37
European and 11 Asian states as well as of international organisations took part,
important agreements were signed concerning the necessity of bridging transport corridors
of Europe, Asia and Pacific region. For the realisation of this project a constantly
operating secretariat was established. Besides a common declaration Russia, India and Iran
signed an agreement to establish a new corridor North - South stretching to the
coast of the Persian Gulf, within the IX transport corridor. Germany, Poland, Belorus and
Russia signed a protocol on the extension of the II transport corridor up to
Yekaterinburg, its connection with Transsib and the ports of Japan and South Korea.
In the speaker’s opinion, if such international
processes start, Russian significance as a bridge for Eurasian transit will revive again.
According to B.Usanov, the annual freight capacity of North - South transport
corridor is estimated as 15-16 million tonnes and of East - West corridor - 500
thousand containers. Last year only 41.3 thousand containers were carried through the
latter corridor.
If the plans concerning these corridors were realised, the budget of
Russia would be annually replenished with 15 milliard US dollars. Expecting large freight
flows Russia is determined to construct a large port of St. Petersburg and new terminals.
The speaker did not conceal the intentions of Russia to stick to the
policy of handling the freight carried across its territory in the ports of Russia. To
substantiate the aim many figures were given alleging the railway and port tariffs of the
Baltic States to be exorbitant. President of Latvian Transit Business Association
A.Lembergs responded impulsively, saying that politics was made with such public
statements, though in fact the tariffs were much lower. B.Usanov parried that his
statements were based on the results of the scientific analysis.
Campaign against the Suez Canal
The participants of the Conference TransBaltika -
2001, however, were really unanimous about one issue. The Suez Canal was resolutely
‘sentenced to death’.
“Such projects (North - South, East - West) make us
think that freight flows will go round the Suez Canal which is sufficiently overloaded at
present”, said B.Usanov.
“According to the Ministry of Transport of Russia after the railway TransKorea
has been modernised and connected to TransSiberia main line there will appear a
possibility to transport containers from door to door within 13-14 days. At present the
container transportation from the port of Pussan to Europe via the Suez Canal takes 35-45
days. Carrying containers from Pussan to Nakhdoka by sea, with their transhipment into
railway transport and further transportation along TransSiberia main line would
cost 200-400 US dollars less than carrying by sea via the Suez Canal”- such conclusions
were presented by Vice-President of Eurasian Transport Union, professor Y.Shcherbanin.
(His article on the subject was published in the previous issue of the Sea -
Editor).
President of Latvian Transit Business Association A.Lembergs spoke on
this subject with bigger heat. He said that 95-98 per cent of all containerised freight is
carried via the Suez Canal and only a very small part of it falls on Northern countries.
“We have to work together to attract a part of freight from the southern direction to
the northern one. The Middle East region is politically very unstable, thus the EU will
probably create alternative transport corridors. Certainly, I do not raise the question
whether the Suez Canal should be closed, though people of my generation perfectly remember
the time when it did not exist…”
A.Lembergs representing Latvian transit business asked rhetorically why
the Great Silk Route does not go via Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belorus, Poland. Why does
the oil flow turn away and go south of our states, except a small branch to Ventspils? Who
stands to gain?
Trying to answer these questions A.Lembergs blamed the competition
among the Baltic States, unpredictable and discriminative tariff policy of Russia,
prospering subjectivity and protectionism. In his opinion it creates such conditions due
to which cargo goes round Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Finland.
The speaker reproached Lithuania softly that it had rejoiced the fact
when Russia had increased its railway tariffs for Latvia and left preferential ones for
Lithuania. “When Russia equalised the tariffs we are able to rejoice, too, being equal
in competition. The ports of Latvia are winning this competition so far. Meanwhile
Lithuania tries to agree with Russia again by realising the project 2K, but hardly
will it help”, said A.Lembergs. He recommended to think not of how to harm another
country but what to do to make everybody better. The leader of Latvian transit business
asserted it was necessary to follow a common policy in the global competition with the
transport corridors of the southern direction, to find the ways, how to attract freight
from these directions and turn them to our own roads, via our own ports. If we do not do
that, we will make the Suez Canal and the transport corridors of the southern direction
even stronger.
The representative of Klaipeda port as an
initiator
of a new confederation
It was not the first international event when the
reports and statements of the representative of Klaipeda State Sea Port Authority in
Moscow Vitalijus Marinecas had been listened to especially attentively. In Riga the
representative of Klaipeda port astonished the participants of the conference by an
unexpected proposal to convene a confederation which would include the representatives of
Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Russian and Finnish ports. The speaker presented a whole
spectrum of questions that should be coordinated and solved by the confederation. He
offered certain people to establish an initiative group and to set to work immediately.
The participants of the conference approved enthusiastically the suggestion of
V.Marinecas. (This issue is highlighted in the article of Vitalijus Marinecas. Editor)
For the sixths time the Conference was organized by Consultative
Company Riga Managers School.
Since 1996, the company dealing with implementation of international
projects has been able to attract sufficient number of participants and especially
interesting speakers to its annual conferences. This year the daily routine of the
conference was divided into two parts: scientific and practical. The sessions of the
second day of the conference were held in the ports of Riga, Ventspils and Liepaja.
Ports of the Baltic States seek for close collaboration
Gabriele Vasiliauskaite
The working group of the Communication
Com mittee of the Baltic Ports Organization (BPO) which
met in August in Klaipeda intends to submit to the BPO General Assembly, being convened
next June, conclusions and recommendations prepared about a possible co-operation between
the ports of the Baltic States by attracting and sharing of cargo flows.
After the meeting the leader of the co-operation and competition
working group, representative of the Authority of Klaipeda State Sea Port (KSSP) in Moscow
Vitalijus Marinecas asserted the journalists that there is a possibility of such a
collaboration, but this is, however, rather burdened by competition between the ports of
separate countries, striving for profit and commercial secrets. According to V.Marinecas,
close collaboration between the ports may be hampered by political as well as by
psychological obstacles, an unwillingness to exchange the information.
The working group decided to continue developing the collaboration
between the ports in the non-commercial sphere - environment protection, navigation
safety, technical issues and seeking for collaboration in the commercial sphere – cargo
transportation and cargo handling, exchange and attraction of cargo flows.
According to was V.Marinecas, members of the working group agreed that
there a big possibility to attract large cargo flows from the sub-continental countries of
the Far East, Asia and India rather to the quickly developing Baltic region than to
individual ports.
Common market research and informative activities, new transport
corridors, according to V.Marinecas, would help to attract new flows, but it will,
however, be difficult for the ports to share cargo, consequently, the ports offering the
cheapest services would win.
At the press conference, member of the working group, Commercial
Director Deputy of St. Petersburg Sea Port Dmitriy Razumov said that the growing turnover
of containers in the world would lead to the increase of containers in the ports of the
Baltic Sea by 15-20 per cent.
According to D.Razumov, the ports of the Baltic States, including
Lithuania, may be used for handling big transit cargo flows from Asia and Central East to
Scandinavia.
Ship owners, representatives of the associations of stevedoring
companies taking part in the meeting of the working group suggested expansion of spheres
of the BPO activities and inclusion of branch associations into the organization, and in
that way takeing into account the activity of cargo forwarding agents.
BPO wasfounded ten years ago, unites 56 administrations, associations
and organizations of all ports of the countries of the Baltic Sea region.
This organization co-ordinates and forms transport flows of the ports
of the Baltic States. It strives to co-ordinate the activities of the countries in
attracting investors to these regions and create favorable conditions for the auspicious
cargo movement and development of transport corridors. |
