Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) has opened its own office in St Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, in a move to develop a strong logistics presence in the country, according to eyefortransport.

WWL has operated in Russia since 2003, and first called at the port of St Petersburg in January 2009 when it established a weekly transhipment service, from Gothenburg via Kotka in Finland, specifically for high and heavy ro-ro cargo originating in the Americas and Asia.

WWL also offers services to and from St Petersburg and other ports in the Baltic Sea based on transhipment solutions with commercial short-sea carriers.

During the past few weeks, WWL's ro-ro vessels MV Tortugas and MV Fidelio have made calls at berth 46/47 of Petrolesport to trial port's berthing facilities for the carrier's latest generation of deep-sea ro-ro vessels.

Initially, WWL will serve St Petersburg with a weekly transhipment service from Gothenburg in Sweden and Kotka in Finland, with additional feeder services from Bremerhaven in Germany and Zeebrugge in Belgium.

According to Anders Boman, CEO for Europe at WWL, customer demand will determine when and which services the carrier introduces first into Russia alongside its existing ocean product. However, by the end of 2009, WWL intends to offer supply chain management expertise and inland transport using carefully selected local third-party providers.

Source: Transportweekly