News / Fesco eyes expansion with service from Cambodia to Russia

© Vladimir Serebryanskiy

Russian shipping line Fesco yesterday launched a service between Cambodia and Russia as it tries to expand market share.

Containers will be barged or feedered from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City, where Fesco has a transhipment facility. The South-east Asian country’s main sea port, Sihanoukville, is mainly feeder-connected.

The containers will be aggregated and transferred to ships on Fesco’s Vietnam-Russia service, which calls at the Russian Far Eastern port of Vladivostok, a voyage estimated to take 12 days.

Intermodal transport, such as Fesco’s container trains, can move goods into other Russian cities or neighbouring states.

Previously, most Cambodia–Russia container freight was transhipped through Asian ports such as Singapore, Port Klang, and Ho Chi Minh City, under third-party carriers.

Cambodian prime minister Hun Manet and Russian officials have discussed expanding trade cooperation, including in agriculture, energy, logistics, and machinery, particularly Russian fertiliser exports to Cambodia, which would in turn send agricultural products to Russia.

Following the imposition of international sanctions in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has been turning to non-western import sources, creating opportunities for exports from emerging Asian markets.

Fesco’s Vietnam-Russia service started in 2023 and is served with three ships. According to deputy CEO (logistics) German Maslov, in 2025, cargo volume carried between Vietnam and Russia rose 16% year on year, while goods from ASEAN are also being transhipped through Vietnamese ports.

Based on that, Fesco started services from Vietnam to other Russian ports, such as St Petersburg and Novorossiysk.

Cambodia’s main imports are fuel and fertiliser, both of which Russia produces. Boosting trade ties improves Cambodia’s energy security.

Fesco, owned by the Russian state, owns assets in the port, railway, and integrated logistics business, including reefer operator Dalreftrans.

Ranked 36^th among shipping lines, with over 52,000 teu of capacity, Fesco also manages terminals in Novosibirsk, Khabarovsk, Tomsk, Vladivostok, and Kaliningrad.