By John Helmer in Moscow Visits by politicians to banana boats are almost unprecedented outside the tropical climes; no Russian prime minister has ever boarded one before. Almost as rare is it for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to favour a foreign-owned shipping enterprise when it is competing against a Russian enterprise owned, not only by […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, March 25th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Sovcomflot, the global tanker group run by Sergei Frank (left) and Russian government officials, received a negative rating report from the Moody’s international rating agency this week, as proceedings in the company’s half-billion-dollar claim against the former management wind up in the UK High Court in London. According to Moody’s […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, March 14th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow A deteriorating personal relationship between chief shareholders, and growing financial pressures on loss-making Far Eastern Shipping Company (Fesco), the Russian multimodal transportation leader, have led to a buyout offer for Fesco’s 50% stake in the National Container Company (NCC), which operates the First Container Terminal of St. Petersburg, the biggest […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, January 28th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Sovcomflot (SCF), the state owned Russian tanker operator, released this week a board-approved strategy for the next five years, proposing to invest $5.5 billion with a combination of new borrowings and share sales over a six-year period. This capital outlay on a fleet that already counts 146 vessels, with another […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow A powerful 6-point storm on Monday did an estimated $60 million worth of damage, and severely set back the construction schedule for the new Sochi cargo port, being built for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games at Imeretinsky Bay. The new port is being built by the holding company of bankrupt […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, December 17th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s state-owned oil pipeline company Transneft has upped the pressure on the controlling shareholders of Novorossiysk Commercial Seaport Company (NCSC) in what one Moscow maritime analyst calls today “an arm-twisting preliminary to next year’s contest over the sale of the 20% state stake in the port.” While in London the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
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Step-1, believe me, I have no money Step-2, you drop your money in my hand Step-3, I wave goodbye and sail on my way By John Helmer in Moscow Far Eastern Shipping Company (Fesco), the listed Russian dry-cargo fleet operator controlled by Sergei Generalov (left image), says it has run into a debt refinancing problem […]

by John Helmer - Friday, December 11th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Russian grain trade is complaining that there has been another outbreak of the weevil wars delaying large consignments of Russian export wheat from being landed and sold at ports in Syria and Egypt, ostensibly for reason of infestation. This time, two vessels and 110,000 tonnes of grain, originally loaded […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 12th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Yury Privalov, the former head of Sovcomflot’s London-based shipping operations, wound up his testimony in the High Court this week with half a dozen new allegations undocumented before in court, or since his release on parole from a Moscow prison on October 10, 2008. Testifying over eight days by videolink […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 12th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s state-aid agent for struggling shipyards, the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), is to have another chief executive after the current one, Alexander Buzakov (right figure), was ordered out by the chairman of USC’s board, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin (left figure). A newspaper leak, published in Moscow on Monday, reporting […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
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