Foreign trade

Customs change could dethrone St. Petersburg as top Russia port

The Bronka and Ust-Luga seaports are expected to become the new container hubs of northwest Russia due to Russian Federal Customs Service plans to cease servicing export-import cargo on site at Big Port St. Petersburg.

The decision will make importing and exporting out of Big Port inconvenient as all the necessary paperwork will take place in the new Bronka seaport roughly 40 miles away. The distance means there will be huge delays for shippers if inspectors require additional paperwork or need to inspect cargo.

The decision is mainly because of “massive violations of the customs legislation,” at the Baltiysky Customs Post, which oversees Big Port, according to Andrei Belyaninov, head of the Federal Customs Service. Those violations cost the federal budget enormous amounts of money, and the FCS wants to end the corruption.

The plan is sure to benefit the nearby Baltic ports of Bronka and Ust-Luga, and is supported by the municipal authorities in St.Petersburg who have been lobbying for the closure of port terminals within the city since the mid-2000s.