ESE 2021 in Kaliningrad

On September 16-17, the 11th annual Meeting of Freight Forwarders and Multimodal Operators took place in Kaliningrad (Radisson Blu Hotel, Kaliningrad).

• 138 delegates
• 14 cities of Russia and Kazakhstan
• 72 participating companies, including:
• 14 key container operator companies;
• 46 forwarding companies;
• 9 shipping companies;
• 12 leading players of local market.

     According to the current situation, the number of offline participants in this year was strictly limited, and the business program "Container Transportation: more growth" took place in a hybrid format: some participants and speakers were offline, others followed the forum and spoke online.

138 delegates from 72 companies from Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China took part in the Forume offline, including:

• TOP managers and CEOs of the largest railway operating companies from Russia and abroad: PJSC TransContainer, FESCO Transport Group, Novaya Logistic LLC, Logbox Ltd., CJSC Eurosib-SPb TS, JSC Russian Railways Logistics, LLC Trans Synergy, China Merchant, Maersk, Rail Cargo Logistics-RUS, RTSB-Rus, etc., 
• TOP managers of freight forwarding companies from various regions of Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Rostov-on-Don, Kaliningrad, etc.).

During the panel discussion on the first day of the Forum, experts shared forecasts for the development of the container transportation market for the next 5 years, exchanged views on key issues of industry development in the domestic market and globally, presented new routes and services for accelerated container delivery.

Alexander Semyonovich Rolbinov, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Kaliningrad Region and Felix Felixovich Lapin, President of the Kaliningrad CCI Union, opened the forum in Kaliningrad with a welcoming speech, noting the uniqueness of the Kaliningrad Region's location with its unconditional advantages (double gauge railway, port and railway infrastructure, geographical location) and the potential for the development of international transport corridors, as well as the importance of joint efforts of all market participants in building a single sustainable transport system. Forum moderator Pavel Polyakov, Chairman of the Commercial and Legal Affairs Committee of the Association of Commercial Seaports, pointed that Kaliningrad as Vladivostok, showed the highest growth rates in container traffic volumes during first 9 months of 2021.

The panel discussion began with a report by Herman Maslov, Vice-President of the Linear Logistics Division of the FESCO Transport Group, about current trends in the development of container transportation. The expert noted that in 2022, the company expects normalization of world trade, stabilization of global logistics and cooling of consumer demand, which in turn will lead to decrease in freight, but at the same time, rates, according to the expert, will remain at a level higher than pre-crisis.

The topic was continued by Sergey Mukhin, Vice-President of Commercial Activities of PJSC TransContainer, who spoke about the key aspects of containerization and the development of container transportation on the Russian railway network. The expert noted that containerization of railway transportation in the Russian Federation is significantly below the world level, while the market growth potential is very high. Among the cargoes with the greatest potential for containerization, the speaker noted grain and aluminum.

Alevtina Kirillova, Head of the Project Office of JSC Russian Railways Logistics, spoke to the participants online and spoke about the strategy of the development of agrologistics projects using the routes of international transport corridors.

Yuri Sukmanov, CEO of Logbox LLC, reported about the fitting platform market, noting a significant increase of the platform fleet on the Russian Railways network this year. At the same time, the expert summarized that the increase in demand for the fleet in 2021 is more related to an increase in wagon turnover than to market growth, and that the surplus of rolling stock in the near future is quite obvious. 

During the panel discussion, we could not but touch upon the issue of the development of container transportation along the Northern Sea Route. Egor Barskov, Head of the Foreign Economic Activity Department at Oboronlogistics LLC, shared with the participants the company's experience in cargo transportation in the harsh Arctic climate and the holding's capabilities for market participants.

Yuri Yuryev, the Head of the project office of JSC Russian Post, told the participants of the Forum about the transformation of the logistics market for e-commerce, noting that retail goods currently account for a significant share in container transportation via the Russian Railways network, but at the same time, for a more efficient and full-scale switching of retail cargo logistics from trucks to railway, it is necessary new technologies and approaches to tariff formation.

Alexander Baskakov, Director of the RTSB-RUS representative office in Russia, continued the topic of the development of cross-border transportation and transit potential of Russia in the Europe-China-Europe direction, emphasizing infrastructure constraints as one of the constraining factors for the growth of container transit.

One of the current trends in the development of domestic rail container transportation in 2021 is piggyback transportation. Mikhail Tarasov, the Deputy General Director of RusTrail LLC, shared with colleagues the company's experience in the development of piggyback transportation in the Kaliningrad region, and also spoke about the prospects for the development of this market segment.

At the end of the panel discussion, the relevant issue for all industry participants was raised regarding the use of foreign own containers on the territory of the Russian Federation, and the status of the latter according to the definition and provisions of the EAEU Customs Code and possible changes to it in the near future.

After the lunch break, the participants of the forum had a practical session "Topical issues of interaction between market participants", which included three key blocks:

        1. Practical cases from experts in the field of management and personnel development. Oksana Polchaninova, CEO of the OxiAction consulting agency, told the participants about the main trends in the labor market in logistics and beyond, noting a significant increase in the expectations of applicants in terms of salaries in the logistics market.

Alexander Kuznetsov, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Deputy General Director for Science of Design Business Modeling LLC, outlined the importance of internal development of employees and told the participants about possible programs of basic and additional professional education in the field of logistics, programs to improve the professional competence of logisticians.

       2. An interesting and active discussion with the participants of the Forum was held by Irina Minina, CEO of the Strategic Alliance law agency and Alina Mechebe, the Head of the Freight insurance Department of Ingosstrakh JSC. They told about legal issues and liability on the road, who and in which cases should compensate for damage.

      3. The key trends in the development of the digitalization market and their role for the further development of container transportation could not but be touched upon. Maria Lazareva, Development Director of Atlas Group and Ilya Kozachenko, CEO of Reylog, told the participants of the Forum about current trends in digitalization, opportunities and prospects for the development of the container business.

The forum was held for two days. The second day of the Forum was held under the general slogan "Logistics without ties": maximum emphasis on informal communication of participants. For the participants of the Meeting, a sightseeing tour of the city was organized with a visit to the main infrastructure facility of the city of Kaliningrad, the Kaliningrad commercial seaport, an exciting intellectual game "QUIZ-Logiz", an exciting journey-immersion in the history of Europe from the Viking age to the knights of the Teutonic Order.