FREIGHT-2009: International Container Transportation in Russia and Neighbouring Countries

November 26, 2009 St. Petersburg will play host to the main event of the year for the Russian container industry - the international conference "FREIGHT-2009: International Container Transportation in Russia and Neighbouring Countries". This is the sixth time container market trend-setters, top managers of key companies and state officials representing industry regulating bodies will discuss industry developments at their annual meeting.

This year the main subjects set forth for discussion will be the results after the first year of the crisis and the key trends and initiatives to define the industry development in 2010.

The container logistics and transportation market in Russia has been hit by the economic recession worse than many other segments as the traffic downturn was aggravated by the large-scale infrastructure projects started during the container boom, when the industry was suffering from the lack of capacity.

The first session will be dedicated to demand forecast for the next year, consumption restructure and shippers' expectations.

Strategic planning much depends upon the policies set by the state authorities that regulate and control the market, notably the customs. One of the conference sections will be traditionally given to a panel discussion with Federal Customs Service officials. This year, the RF Federal Customs Service has embarked on a number of initiatives that will inevitably change the market environment. One of these is the Concept of moving customs clearance and control to the state border of the Russian Federation that was proposed in March 2009. Local implementation of the Concept as well as the Customs Service's initiative to restrict container operations via road border crossings will be topical during the customs panel.