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TRUCKING INDUSTRY NEWS * Estonia - Trucking industry pays price of defying Russia
Tallinn,Estonia -Hello Estonia -21 June 2008: -- ... Russia restricted trade through Estonia after the government there moved a Red Army World War II memorial from the centre of Tallinn to a cemetery in the suburbs, triggering a diplomatic clash, a wave of "cyber" attacks, and riots in Tallinn and outside the Estonian embassy in Moscow... Transit trade from Russia through Estonia – once one of the Soviet Union's main export channels - has collapsed since the "Bronze Soldier" dispute just over a year ago... Initially, trucks were blocked from crossing the main bridge at Narva into Estonia and the rail line to the border suddenly required repairs. These restrictions were temporary, but the decline in trade has proved to be permanent... For trucks, delays at Russian customs have created huge queues trying to cross the frontier, though these are also common on the Finnish and Latvian borders. In Narva, city officials say there are often 400 trucks waiting for around three days on each side... Yet the Estonian transit industry now has to find other business or go out of business. The big hopes are car transport and the container business, this time going west to east rather than vice versa to satisfy Russia's booming demand for consumer items. In the past, only one-quarter of the total cargo traffic went from west to east... Tallinn Port has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ningbo port in China to make Muuga, near Tallinn, the main container port for Chinese exports in the eastern Baltic. In the first phase, Tallinn will invest €55m in developing a 27-hectare site at the port in order to handle up to 500,000 TEU containers per year with a long-term ambition for up to 4m... Sillamae port near Narva, is also building a container terminal with a capacity of 800,000 TEU, though aimed at traffic going east-west... "If you have permanently bad relations with Russia it's hard to be successful," says Erik Terk, a consultant who has advised Tallinn Port and Estonia Railways.
Labels: trucking industry news worldwide
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