by Vitaly Chernov, Editor-in-Chief, PortNews.ru

Last year, less than 30 million tonnes of Russian cargo, some 3.6% of the country's entire port traffic, went through the seaports of the Baltic States, Finland, and Ukraine, a 1.5-time-drop on the 2019 volume.

The devil is in the detail, so the picture is a mixed one. For instance, Finnish ports handled 7% year-on-year more Russian cargo in 2020, chiefly thanks to ore transshipment taking place in Kokkola (almost 3.0mt, up by 26% yoy). The country also took care of an increased batch of mineral fertilisers, an advance close to 10% yoy, totalling nearly 1.5mt.

This points out the lack of dry bulk handling facilities in Russia. However, a number of infrastructure projects aimed at increasing Russian ports' capacity, both in the Baltic and in other regions, are either already in the pipeline or in the planning phase.

As such, Russia might as well end up with not only its stevedores competing for Russian goods handled outside the country's borders but also against each other on their own turf.

At the same time, Russia is also eyeing redirecting Belarusian trade, oil products and fertilisers, towards its Baltic seaports.

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