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Sergey Shishkarev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Delo Group, believes that the Russian shipping industry has a chance to replace European companies, and in order to ensure effective conquest of external markets, it is necessary to consolidate all Russian players under a single brand. He expressed this belief during the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), which took place in Vladivostok on September 3-6, 2024.“Every crisis is both a problem and a window of opportunity. Therefore, now we should consider that a niche in merchant shipping has been almost completely vacated,” he said at the ‘World Trade: a Tool for Development, Not Pressure’ session organized by Delo Group, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and the Russian Export Center.
At the forum, Sergey Shishkarev cited data showing that Russian carriers are rapidly filling the gaps left by Western shipping lines in Russian ports. For instance, over the last five years, the share of Russian operators in the ports of the Far East has grown 2.4 times to 56%. Meanwhile, their share in the North-West has increased from 2% to 30% over the same period, i.e. by 15 times.
However, Russia's share in international maritime transportation barely reaches 5%, which is very low, pointed out the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Delo Group.
“We all need to unite and represent at least the Russian logistics industry under the unified “Made in Delo” brand,” suggested Sergey Shishkarev.
Speaking later at the session of the Russian Ministry of Transportation “To the East! Routes of the New Time”, the founder of Delo Group called for the further development of proprietary fleet, as well as the construction of its own overseas infrastructure — transport and logistics centers, consignment warehouses and more. He addressed the head of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov with a proposal to join efforts, “to extend logistics chains, reach out to sea and, above all, arrive to the points of sale”. In his opinion, when entering overseas markets, Russian companies should abandon competition with each other and act as a united front.
In a later interview with Russia-24 at the forum, the founder of Delo Group recalled his idea of a large container traffic between St. Petersburg, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Cuba. According to him, this would cover the countries of Asia and the Global South, which account for up to 70% of the world GDP. The prospects there are immense, but conquering new markets requires industry unity.
“Here we can debate among ourselves as much as we like. But when we enter the external market, we have to act as a clenched fist,” said Sergey Shishkarev. — “If we do this, I think that we will ‘chew off’ a considerably larger bite of the global transportation and logistics services pie”.
The Delo Group Chairman of the Board also praised the government's current support of the country's transportation and logistics complex. He said that he was personally involved in the development of two industry-specific national projects — “Efficient Transportation System” and “International Cooperation and Export” and participated in discussions chaired by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. “There has never been such an active and high-quality discussion of presidential decrees and the development of mechanisms for implementing the objectives set out in the national projects for more than 20 years,” admitted the founder of Delo Group of Companies.