Chattogram port in focus as Russian shipping giant expands in Asia

The Far-Eastern Shipping Company (Fesco) has introduced a container service in Bangladesh as a part of its push to facilitate direct shipping from the Indian subcontinent to Russia.

Russian news agency Interfax reported on Friday that Fesco Transport Group, a concern of the Moscow-based logistics operator, is expanding the geography of its Indian Line West maritime transport service.

The Fesco Indian Line West, which links Russia's Novorossiysk with India's Nhava Sheva and Mundra ports, was launched as a deep-sea container service in February this year.

Later in August, Fesco deployed its own container vessel on the shipping line, which is now connected with Bangladesh and Pakistan by means of transhipment via Colombo in Sri Lanka.

Confirming the development, Anis Ud Dowla, senior executive director of Karnaphuli Group, said Fesco launched the liner service in Bangladesh in early October with Regensea Lines as its local agent.

Regensea Lines is a sister company of Karnaphuli Group.

According to shipping agents, Fesco initially shipped 20 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of empty containers in October. However, it is yet to operate any shipping services in the country, Anis said.

When it comes to shipping the Fesco containers back to Russia, they will be carried to Mundra port using feeder vessels after undergoing transhipment at the port of Colombo.

There, the containers will be loaded onto a Fesco vessel and proceed directly to Novorossiysk, with the total transit time estimated at 45 days, the report said quoting a press release from the company.

Most of the import cargo flow will be consumer goods and light industry products while export traffic will consist of wood products, chemical cargo and building materials, it added.

As per the Fesco website, import tariffs for cargo sent from Chattogram to Novorossiysk via Colombo and Mundra have been fixed at $2,400 per 20-foot container and $3,700 per 40-foot container.

Meanwhile, the export tariff for Chattogram bound cargo on the Novorossiysk-Mundra route would be $2,200 per 20-foot container and $3,700 per 40-foot container.

Bangladesh exported $460 million worth of products to Russia in fiscal 2022-23. In the July-October period of the current fiscal, exports to Russia amounted to $136 million, up 37 percent year-on-year.