Summa to buy stake in Fesco, beefs up presence in Suez Canal

MOSCOW: Summa Group, owner of Russian ports and a Rotterdam oil terminal, is spending US$1.4bil to buy a stake in Fesco Group, a Pacific port and ship operator, to form a Eurasian freight network and challenge Suez Canal shipping.

Russia’s rail transit might surge as electronic customs clearance was introduced and dispatching improved, Summa said.

Asia-Europe seaborne traffic reached 13.5 million containers in 2011, a US$12.2bil market, Drewry Maritime Research said.

Russia carried 101,500 containers between Europe and Asia last year, according to Moscow-based Infranews, a research institute.

“Serious freight flows are possible in a market that is not very developed currently.

“Summa wants to create a dominant transportation holding on the foundation of ports and rail operators that can ship cargo between Europe and Asia,” said Mikhail Ganelin, an analyst at Troika Dialog in Moscow.