Unifeeder, the Danish container feeder and short sea shipping specialist which opens its ninth Northern Europe to Russia weekly multi modal service next month, will make its inaugural sailing to the Russian multipurpose deep-water port Ust-Luga on the 29th December. The company’s 1440 TEU vessel Emotion will be the first call to the terminal.
Unifeeder is to establish its own office within the terminal to service the fixed weekly calls by its vessels, and now boasts the most comprehensive terminal network in the St. Petersburg area. The new service will offer fixed weekly connections between the Ust-Luga terminal and the major hub ports Hamburg and Rotterdam. With the new addition, Unifeeder offers seven weekly calls to the St. Petersburg area, connecting the focal point with Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Antwerp and the rest of Unifeeder’s extensive network.
The terminal itself is situated in the Luga Bay of the Gulf of Finland, and as such offers all-year round operation with a shorter ice channelling period than in St. Petersburg. The necessary infrastructure to handle major volume has already been set in place with the direct involvement of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation. The container terminal with 440 m of quay is fully equipped with railway tracks, shunting yards and wide internal roads. Motorways and railway enabling swift removal of containers and reducing risk of congestion.
While the multipurpose port is still under construction, it currently holds an annual throughput capacity of 440,000 TEU and by 2019 it is expected to handle more than 2,800,000 TEU annually and claims to have easy access to the main traffic arterial routes. Unifeeder’s CEO Jesper Kristensen commented:
“We are confident that the new service will be successful as the terminal offers a sound alternative to the St. Petersburg city terminals. Its geographical location offers the possibility to reduce the impact of the harsh winter on operation, and it will be able to easily accommodate cargo going to the St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kaluga areas through well established infrastructure. It is the new gateway into Russia and at Unifeeder we are proud to add it as a fixed part of our already extensive terminal network in the area.”

News source: Handy Shipping Guide
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