Saint Petersburg (Russia)

Saint Petersburg is Russia's largest cruise port and second largest city (after the capital Moscow). The city is located on Neva River, while the seaport is at Gulf of Finland (Baltic Sea). St Petersburg is one of Russian Federation's all 3 federal cities - together with Moscow and Sevastopol.

The city has federal status. It was named Saint Petersburg in 1703. The name was changed to Petrograd in 1914, and to Leningrad in 1924, and back to Saint Petersburg in 1991. Tsar Peter the Great established it on May 27, 1703. Between 1713-1728 and 1732-1918, it was Russia's imperial capital. The central government bodies moved to Moscow in 1918. St Petersburg is Russia's 2nd-largest city (after Moscow) with population over 5,3 million, as well as country's largest and most important Baltic Sea port.

St Petersburg is Russia's most westernized city, its cultural capital and also world's northernmost city with population over 1 million. The Historic Centre (downtown) and Related Groups of Monuments are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city is home to The Hermitage, one of the biggest art museums in the world. A wealth of international corporations, foreign consulates, businesses and banks have offices here.

IMPORTANT: Since 2020, foreign cruise tourists visiting Russia via Port St Petersburg are required to have E-Visas (single-entry visas). They are issued via the website government.ru, valid for 30 days and allow entries for max 8-day stays. E-Visa applications must be applied within 20 days of disembarkation (intended arrival) but no later than 4 days prior arrival. E-Visas allow tourists to go through the city's immigration checks multiple times during their stay.

After the port city is named the 2009-built icebreaker Sankt-Peterburg.

Port St Petersburg

In peak-season June 2017 alone, the cruise port handled a total of 56 ships and 122,770 passengers. Two new ships (TUI's Mein Schiff 6 and Regent's Seven Seas Explorer) made inaugural calls. On May 2, 2017, was the maiden call of the newbuild ship Viking Sky (Viking Ocean Cruises). In 2017, the port handled 243 ship calls with over 540,000 passengers (19% increase over 2016). The port had 20 long-term berthing contracts with cruise companies and the ferry operator MOBY LINES.

In 2017, the cruise port had a total of 105 ship days and handled 441451 tourists. Just in the week July 10-16, the port received 17 liners with a total of 36,233 passengers. On July 11 and 12 here docked 7 liners with 23,458 passengers. July 2017's total ship days and handled passengers were, respectively, 34 and 130,283.

For season 2019, the cruise port had scheduled/booked 262 ship calls (including 10 maiden visits) with estimated 625,000+ passengers. However, the season (April 28 through October 21) ended with handled 265 ship calls (270 in 2018) and 647,640 passengers. Compared to season 2018, port's cruise passenger shipping traffic increased by 4% due to vessels' increasing capacity. Based on the berth bookings, the traffic in 2020 will increase to 648,000 passengers via 258 ship calls (including 11 new cruise ships). Also in 2020, Tallink Group (Baltic Seas's largest cruiseferry operator) plans to use Passenger Port St Petersburg for the first time.

Port's busiest cruiseship day so far was in 2018 (June 30), when were handled 18,000+ tourists from 6 vessels (Norwegian Breakaway, Regal Princess, Britannia, Mein Schiff 1, Zuiderdam, Oceania Marina). In August 2019 was inaugurated the new sports and fitness center (in the seaport area) which mainly serves ships' crew while their ships are in port. Also in 2019 was started the Berth 7's extension (by 42 m) to 484 m (1588 ft). When completed in 2021, Berth 7's capacity will be two large passenger liners simultaneously, each with max LOA length 330 m (1083 ft).

Regularly scheduled St Peter Line ferries connect St Petersburg with Helsinki (Finland), Tallinn (Estonia) and Stockholm (Sweden). The ship operating the route (St Petersburg-Helsinki-Stockholm-Tallinn) is Princess Anastasia (crossing time 62,5 hours). To Helsinki are offered 2 weekly crossings (13 hours travel), to Tallinn 1 weekly crossing (14 hours) and to Stockholm1 weekly crossing (39,5 hours).

For FY2018 (fiscal), the port authority company (Sea Port of Saint Petersburg JSC) reported a record year with handled 7,7 million cargo tons (12% increase over FY2017). The traffic growth was attributed to terminal developments of facilities dedicated for transshipment cargoes (cast iron, metal scrap, ores, fertilizers, TEU-containers). Port's exports increased 15% (to 7,45 million tons), while imports decreased 38% (to 252,000 tons). Exports are ~97% (imports ~3%) of seaport's throughput.

Next statistics relate to cargo transshipments.

• Total general cargo increased 5% (to 6,67 million tons, of which 3,74 million ferrous metal).
• Mineral fertilizers increased 75% (to 477,000 tons).
• Non-ferrous metal decreased 10% (to 1,24 million tons). Wood pellets transshipment increased 1% (to 297,000 tons).
• Metal scrap decreased 38% (to 825,000 tons).
• Dry bulk cargo increased 260% (to 597,000 tons, of which 328,000 tons of ore).
• Bulk mineral fertilizers increased 270% (to 106,000 tons).
• TEU throughput (containers shipped on boxships) increased 30$ (to 33,300 TEUs) of which over 27,000 export and over 6,000 import.

On June 5, 2019, Maersk (world's largest container shipping company) started the construction of its new cold storage warehouse (3-chamber facility) specializing in storing perishable goods (fresh and frozen produce). For the project was contracted the Russian company PNK Group, which as of 2019 owns and operates 28 industrial parks in Russia. The new warehouse is within PNK Park Sofiyskaya KAD and sized 23700 m2 (255,100 ft2). It has 35 loading/unloading docks (daily capacity 200 container trucks), max storage capacity 50,000+ tons (30,000+ pallet locations) and is operated by 200+ employees. ~40% of the warehouse is planned to serve exclusively Fyffes plc (Japanese-owned fruit company headquartered in Dublin Ireland).

In February 2020 was established the state-owned (100%) company "Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg Marine Facade" as a sole operator for all passenger terminals. Marine Facade now operates all 6 passenger terminals and all 9 berths at Port St Petersburg, plus 1 rive cruise terminal and 6 berths serving riverboats (at Morskoy Vokzal).

In December 2020, for Container Terminal St Petersburg were ordered two STS (ship-to-shore) container cranes from Konecranes Oyj (Finland). As of 2022-Q1 (new cranes' deliveries), the cargo terminal has (all Konecranes-built) 6x STS cranes plus 24x RTG (rubber tyre gantry) cranes. Both new STS cranes were specially designed for operation at -40 Celsius, with power chains (instead of cable festoons) and with Collision Avoidance System.

Saint Petersburg cruise terminal