RUSSIA – SOUTH KOREA - TransContainer , a subsidiary of Russian Railways and the country’s largest rail freight container operator, has launched a new company, TransContainer Asia Pacific Ltd., to commence a service for container cargo from South Korea to Russian regions, and also to countries of Eastern and Western Europe.
The company has plans to increase international container freight volumes by expanding the geography of its business, developing new routes, and increasing its presence on the transport logistics markets of Asia-Pacific countries.
TransContainer General Director Pyotr Baskakov said:
“The Russian market offers enormous interest in terms of business development for South Korean companies, whose capital investment in the Russian economy runs into billions of dollars. Stepping up mutually beneficial cooperation in various areas of the economy, and carrying out large-scale joint projects, cannot be achieved without a stable and inexpensive transport link.
“The creation of the subsidiary TransContainer Asia Pacific Ltd. will provide a new impulse to the development of container cargo route from South Korean ports by sea to the Far East ports of Russia, and then via rail into Russia. The timeframes for delivering cargo will be reduced by 20-25 days compared to traditional sea transport. Moreover, there will be no need to use international trucking companies. Our route is also attractive to cargo owners in financial terms.”
Mr Baskakov noted that the traditional scheme for shipping cargo from South Korea to the central regions of Russia, which is still in place, involves substantial time delays and financial setbacks. Cargo owners largely use sea transport to deliver goods from South Korea to European ports, from where they are delivered by road to recipients in Russia.
JSC TransContainer is Russia’s largest rail freight container operator, managing a fleet of 60,000 ISO containers and over 24,000 specialized flatcars. After JSC Russian Railways, the Company is Russia’s second largest operator of rail-side container intermodal terminals.
