GAC has opened new offices in Nakhodka and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, located in the Far East of Russia.
As a result, GAC claims to be “the only ship agent with a presence throughout the interconnected Arctic region and Far East: at Murmansk, Kandalaksha, Sabetta, and now Nakhodka and the capital of the Sakhalin region, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.”
GAC is aiming to build business on the back of the Far East region’s Free Port Zone, which was established in 2015. Covering the Russian ports of Vladivostok, Nakhodka and Korsakov among others, the Free Port Zone offers tax benefits, single windows for border control, duty free, tax free import/export and simplified visa procedures.
Arkady Podkopaev, GAC Russia’s General Manager, commented, “GAC has been active in Russia since 2001 and has built a strong network of offices in the European part of the country. The time is now right for us to expand eastwards to provide the GAC brand of professional ship agency and husbandry services to our customers operating in the Far East, which has a coastline of over 5,000 miles and covers 22 maritime ports.”
Of particular interest to GAC in the region is Sakhalin Island, which is home to Russia’s first LNG plant exporting to Asian countries. Most of the export of crude oil in the Far East is arranged from the Kozmino terminal near Nakhodka to where crude is delivered by the Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean pipeline from the Siberian fields. Most of Sakhalin Island’s hydrocarbon resources are located offshore. With the opening of the new offices, GAC Russia is looking to develop its offering of integrated shipping and logistics services to the region’s offshore projects.
In addition, GAC Russia’s 24-hour ship agency dispatcher service based in Novorossiysk has been extended to the Far East area to maintain communication channels and facilitate a prompt response to customers’ needs.
Source: GAC
