RZD Logistics JSC and FESCO Transport Group launch joint transit service the Trans-Siberian Landbridge for an accelerated delivery of goods from Japan to Europe through Russia’s Far East via the Trans-Siberian Railway. The shipment of the test container took place on the 23rd of May in the port of Yokohama in the presence of First Deputy General Director of Russian Railways JSC, Alexander Misharin.
The inter-modal chain of Trans-Siberian Landbridge is organized on route Port of Japan - Vladivostok Commercial Sea Port - Trans-Siberian Railway - Brest - the destination point in Europe. The total delivery time is from 19 days, while it is about 45 days in case of transportation by sea through the Suez Canal. The arrival of the test container, which was shipped with non-hazardous products of the chemical industry from the Japanese port of Yokohama to the Polish city of Wroclaw, is expected in mid-June.
As part of the joint transit product, FESCO provides sea delivery, port handling and provision of container fleet, RZD Logistics is responsible for the organization of rail transportation.
On basis of the test shipping, the parties will complete work on the transportation technology in order to make the service available to customers in June 2019, and afterwards organize a return transportation from Europe to Japan. Car components, consumer goods supposed to be delivered to European countries by means of the Trans-Siberian Landbridge service.
“With this project we want to demonstrate our potential for cooperation with Japanese business in practice via offering modern competitive transport products. Together with the Ministry of Transport of Japan, we agreed to develop multimodal transportation through the Far Eastern ports of Russia and Trans-Siberian Railway. During the past 5 years, Russian Railways has invested more than 5 billion US dollars (more than 300 billion rubles) in the development of railways in the east of Russia, and transportation by this route has grown by more than one-third over this time. We see a very large potential for cooperation with Japanese colleagues and would like to use the created infrastructure, but also for the transportation of goods from Japan”, was noted by Alexander Misharin, First Deputy General Director of Russian Railways JSC
“As the company, which is responsible for the development of international transit in the Russian Railways Group, we have accumulated a unique amount of competences in this area and we are now ready to offer them to Japanese partners, who are interested in quality goods delivery to Europe. Our work experience in international transport corridors with India, China, Vietnam and Korea shows that increasing of the delivery speed and building organized multimodal chains is exactly what a modern shipper needs. The synergy of requests from Japanese and European businesses with the combined capabilities of our three companies led to the creation of the Trans-Siberian Landbridge product and is the key to its successful development”, was mentioned by Vyacheslav Valentik, General Director of RZD Logistics.
“Today, the entire freight traffic between Japan and Europe in the amount of 3 million TEU per year goes through the Suez Canal, while we have the possibility together with colleagues from Russian Railways to offer our customers a much faster and more efficient service on Trans-Siberian Railway. Attraction of transit cargo to Russian infrastructure corresponds to national strategic objectives and objective economic interests of market participants. I am sure that Trans-Siberian Landbridge will be in demand by Japanese partners and will help strengthen and expand our mutually beneficial cooperation with them”, said Alexander Isurin, FESCO President.
