Multimodality Hallmarks
The Northwest logistics market has entered the new phase of development. The emergence of large-scale infrastructural projects precipitated the new format called multimodal logistic terminals.
Definitions May Differ
Being an integral link of the trans-European transport corridor #9 Helsinki – Moscow – Nizhny Novgorod – Astrakhan, Saint Petersburg is a strategic locality on the Eurasian logistics map. The development of such projects as the Ring Road, the Western Speedway, the infrastructure of the Greater Seaport and the emergence of new industrial zones (such as the car-making cluster in Shushary) caused a real boom on the warehousing property market, which led to the development of the new format called multimodal logistics terminals. “This definition is most often applied to a property allowing for a wide range of cargo handling operations. The multimodal terminal must be fit out to serve all types of transportation vehicles. For example, a complex can be rigged out with motor-railroad-water-aircraft infrastructure,” explains Alla Soloviova, executive director of MLP. According to the expert, if a terminal lies near to a water or railway hub, even a truckbed can be demanded. “However Russian Northwest lacks multimodal terminals in the full sense, which would feature all of the above-mentioned characteristics,” adds the expert. Her colleagues shun strict definitions, though. As noted by adviser of the strategic consulting department at Knight Frank, Leonid Zakharov, a multimodal complex is a logistic terminal, which can concurrently accept, handle and make specific operations with cargoes carried by different types of transport (above all, by railway and heavy haulers and, to a lesser extent, by air). This view is also shared by Roman Urevich, spearheading the marketing research department at Praktis CB. In his opinion, several multimodal logistic complexes (MLC) already operate in the Northern capital. Such projects as Utkina Zavod (MLP), Obukhovo (MC Teorema), Logopark Kolpino (Eurasia Logistic) are now under construction.
Large and Small Terminals
In the opinion of Leonid Zakharov, adviser at the strategic consulting department of Knight Frank, out of the currently operating properties the warehouses of Eurosib (Predportovy, Shushary) and Interterminal (Predportovy) could be ranked among MLC. In particular, Eurosib-Predportovy, covering around 5 hectares, is designed for handling the cargos reloaded from water to land carriers and vice versa. A shuttle train runs back and forth between the terminal and the Seaport, where Russia’s largest container terminal owned by the National Container Company, is in operation. On reaching the logistic terminal containers are reloaded on heavy haulers and head for their destinations. The one-time storage capacity is 1,500 containers. Fifteen truckbeds making up a train are also owned by Eurosib, which is among the biggest Russian private transportation-logistic companies operating the fleet of 11,500 carriages. Thus the company has built a full business cycle, namely “warehouse development – logistics – transportation and expediting services”. Eurosib plans to build logistics terminals all over the country. The first stage with the overall investment of $200 million includes the construction of six MLC: two in St. Petersburg and one in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Zabaikalsk. Thus early in 2008 the company plans to put two terminals into operation: Shushary in St. Petersburg and Pashino in Novosibirsk. The second phase will include the development of the sites in Samara, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar, Irkutsk and the Russian Far East. Some time later Eurosib hopes to enter the markets of CIS and Europe. All Eurosib’s terminals will be linked by the single linear service. The business scope and diversification of another company residing in Predportovaya industrial area will be much narrower, though Interterminal Group also holds two multimodal terminals among its assets. The terminal’s area in Predportovaya zone amounts to 33,300 sqm. The terminal has four spur tracks (handling and exposition) with the total extension of 2.2 km. The operating transportation-logistic complex in the Parnas industrial zone covers the territory of 11.4 ha. The gross area of refrigerator, heated and unheated warehouses nears 50,000 sqm; the capacity is 59,500 euro-pallets. The total investment in the project reached $63-65 million while the recoupment period is 5-7 years. According to the company’s general director, Marina Zhurkevich, such location of both terminals enables to take care of cargo transportation both northwards and southwards from Saint Petersburg. Both terminals were launched last year and have the necessary equipment to handle cargoes delivered both by motor and railway transport.
Originally the investors looked upon the terminal in Predportovaya zone in the context of the Northwest technopark project launched in 2001. However the concept was modified in 2003 in view of the acute shortage of warehousing space in St. Petersburg and extremely favorable location of this territory (its close proximity to the Ring Road, Western Speedway and Seaport). In the upshot the first class A logistic complex, the largest one in Russian Northwest, was developed. In 2005 the project was sold to Big City and Green Mak companies and since that time it has been successfully developing under the Interterminal brand.
Interestingly enough, the yield in the warehouse segment estimated by the experts of Praktis CB at 15-17% p/a attracts even housing developers to this sphere. Thus M-Industria, which until recent has specialized in housing construction, came out with the project of a multimodal logistic terminal. As noted by Aleksey Topolnitsky, aide of M-Industria CEO in charge of marketing communications, the 95,000-sqm terminal will lie on 20 hectares between the October Quay and the Ring Road. The recoupment period will near 10 years, if the available space is leased out. Development director of Eurosib Development, Maria Tinika, believes that M-Industria’s investments are implausibly high. Its major competitors will be Utikina Zavod project developed by MLP and Teorema terminal constructed in the vicinity. Curiously enough, 90% of space in Utkina Zavod had already been leased out during the first phase of project development. Thus Relogix reserved 55,000 sqm for 10 years straight away while RLS leased another 15,000 sqm.
The amount of investment in the complex construction is estimated at $150 million. This means was advanced by the German bank Hypo Real Estate. MLP plans to build a similar terminal in Shushary.
Prospective Industrial Zones
In expert opinion, industrial zones are most favorable territories for the development of multimodal logistic terminals.
According to Nikolai Vecher, general director of CPRN Vecher, the warehouses of “Soviet formation” on the territory of old industrial zones are getting ever less accessible to transport. Even though spur tracks and ample maneuvering ground for heavy haulers are available on the grounds of the old industrial belt, the main problem is getting out of city from those territories. This is why new projects of multimodal logistic terminals emerge in the new suburban industrial zones, such as Shushary, Parnas, Yanino and Utkina Zavod. In the opinion of Ms. Soloviova, CEO MLP, “the most rational approach is to use the already available transport infrastructure for the new multimodal terminals, i.e. opt for the plots located in close proximity to transport arteries (especially winsome are intersections of railways with water routes or road junctions, over which import-export freightage to and from Europe is flowing).” Also quite important is the closeness of terminals to prominent end recipients of cargoes. In this regard concentration of multimodal terminals in Shushary, where a large automobile cluster is being formed, is quite understandable, in the opinion of Mr. Urevich. In 2007 Eurosib-Terminal tackled the construction of a transportation-logistic complex on the area of about 18 hectares. Its planned annual turnover will come to 420,000 tons and 50,000 containers. Two warehouses with the aggregate space of 30,000 sqm (one of them is class A), a container ground, railroad fronts and parking lots for trucks and cars will be fashioned on the terminal’s territory. Eurasia Logistic (subsidiary of the investment-industrial group Eurasia), in its turn , started construction on the class A logistics park Kolpino in December 2006 not far from said site, 8 km from the Ring Road along the E-95 highway. The 790,000-sqm terminal will reportedly spread on 187.7 hectares. The project is split into four phases; the first five units with the total area of 200,000 sqm must be delivered already in October 2007. In August 2010 another 1
20,000 sqm ought to be commissioned. A special spur track will be extended to this logistic city. The complex will be served by a mini heat station with the capacity exceeding 40 megawatt.
In terms of geography it is most expedient to locate such properties at the sites of major freightage concentration, according to Leonid Zakharov from Knight Frank — above all, in SPb south (near to greater port Saint Petersburg – Moscow) and in the north, where cargo flows from Finland are concentrated. “Moskovskoe shosse is now in highest demand. Shushary community, the area of Gorelovo community and Utkina Zavod are also very popular,” agrees Evgeny Makarov, senior consultant at the industrial property department of Colliers Int. The expert opines that in the future terminals can be constructed in more remote districts, such as Gatchina, where the Ust-Luga project is being developed. The eastern and northern districts have so far been poorly developed, and it can be expected that as the southern and northern suburbs are saturated with warehouse space, the former districts will also be actively used for construction of warehousing and customs terminals.
“Developing a chain of inland terminals will be the main trend in Russia over the nearest future,” believes board chairman of Dorn Ltd and former chairman of the Transport and Transit Policies Committee, Andrei Karpov