News / Fesco grows maritime links as India-Russia trade picks up

Kapitan Shchetinina. Photo: FESCO

Fesco (Far Eastern Shipping Co), Russia’s largest ocean container line, is strengthening its service network out of India as trade volumes on the route steadily grow.

The carrier has deployed a bigger vessel on the West India-Novorossiysk route, boosting the overall capacity by some 20%.

Launched in early 2024, the FIL-W (Fesco Indian Line West) service has a rotation connecting India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Russia.  With a fortnightly frequency, it offers an average transit time of 16 days from India to Russia.

Fesco vessels call Nhava Sheva (JNPA) and Mundra, with the latter port being increasingly used as a hub to aggregate cargo from other Indian regions.

“FIL-W is connected by feeder lines to other Indian ports like Kolkata, Tuticorin and Chennai, as well as to the ports of Jebel Ali (UAE), Chattogram (Bangladesh), Karachi (Pakistan) and Colombo (Sri Lanka),” the Russian carrier earlier noted.

“Cargoes are transhipped at the port of Mundra.”

Fesco operations in India are handled by Mumbai-based third-party agent Samsara Group, sources said.

Despite the sanctions on Moscow, even some mainline carriers have been active in India-Russia trade via transhipment.  Eyeing the growth potential, CMA CGM recently indicated plans to revive presence in the Russian market through its forwarding arm, Ceva.

NVO-backed ad-hoc vessel operators offer faster transits from India to Russia because of direct connectivity operations.  Unifeeder, now rebranded by DP World as Shipping Solutions, is another India-Russia trade participant, according to available data.

Both India and Russia have in recent months demonstrated a stronger intent to push bilateral trade and other ties in the context of geopolitical compulsions, which included a two-day visit by Russian president Vladimir Putin to New Delhi in December.

“Volumes are good, but we expect the trade to expand further,” one executive at a new carrier entrant told The Loadstar. “We are looking at the potential demand for Indian grape volumes to Russia.”

India’s seasonal grape export trade runs from February through April, but sources said these cool shipments had not picked up any sort of strong steam so far.

Some early grape bookings have been grabbed by Fesco and Turkish entrant Akkon Lines, as well as other regional operators like Econship and Corten Shipping, according to sources.

That’s a diversification effort for the Indian export industry recently squeezed by US high tariffs, as grape shippers had historically concentrated on Europe.

Two-way trade between India and Russia soared to a new high of some $69bn in the fiscal year 2024-25.  And both sides have vowed to push that level to $100bn by 2030.

Aligning with that strategy, Russia’s semi-public logistics entity, Delo Group, was said to be considering opening a regular containerised ocean service between Novorossiysk and Mormugoa (Goa) in India.

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