Russian maritime carriers plan to increase the volume of cargo transportation on the line between St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad. Over the past three years, ship rental rates on this route have decreased by more than 25%, which has made shipping by sea more economical and predictable. This is reported by Delovoy Peterburg with reference to Elena Tverezovskaya, director of Peleng logistics company, a resident of the Kaliningrad special economic zone.
According to Tverezovskaya, the reduction in rates was made possible by the commissioning of new container ships, including the Alice vessel, which entered service a year ago. This made it possible to increase the carrying capacity of the destination by almost 40%. During the year, the vessel completed 44 round trips, transporting over 18 thousand containers. Currently, Alice delivers up to 270 containers with food, building materials and consumer goods to Kaliningrad every week, and returns about 200 containers with products from local manufacturers in the opposite direction.
Peleng's fleet today consists of three vessels with a total capacity of over 1,000 TEU and 5,000 tons of general and bulk cargo. By the end of 2025, the carrier plans to increase the volume of general cargo shipments to Kaliningrad by 20%, to 120 thousand tons, and the volume of container shipments will grow by 17% to 27 thousand units.
Experts believe that strengthening the maritime direction is a natural step in the face of geopolitical constraints. As noted by Alexander Dmitriev, Doctor of Economics, land routes through Lithuania and Poland face political and logistical obstacles, so the share of water transportation is growing rapidly. Currently, most of the cargo in the Kaliningrad region is delivered by ships plying between the ports of Ust-Luga and Baltiysk.
According to regional authorities, more than 60% of Kaliningrad's cargo already arrives by sea. In the first half of 2025, 2.6 million tons of cargo were processed through the region's port complex. At the same time, about 2 million tons were transported by rail and ferry.
Alexey Besprozvanikh, Governor of the Kaliningrad Region, previously noted that the current fleet of 28 vessels is sufficient for the region, but further development of the maritime sector is considered a priority. In the coming years, it is planned to modernize the port infrastructure in order to ensure uninterrupted supply to the region and increase exports of products from local enterprises.
Thus, the sea line between St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad is becoming a key route for Russia's domestic logistics, reducing dependence on European transit routes and ensuring the sustainability of supplies.
