Baltic States – CIS, Latvia, Logistics, Transport

The new car supply route will be tested in mid-October. It is planned that the first ship will arrive in Riga Freeport on October 15, carrying 800 "Peugeot 308" cars. The vehicles will roadworthiness tests in Riga and then will be transported to Russia by rail.

In case this route turns out to be profitable, Gefco plans to transport around 600 cars via Riga Port each week.

The new logistic route is being developed by Gefco Baltic in cooperation with stevedoring company Riga Central Terminal and the Latvijas Dzelzcels railroad company.

Initially Gefco will use the new route to transport "Peugeot" and "Renault" vehicles, but later cars of other makes will be transported as well, the newspaper reports.

The total number of cars transported via the Riga Port could amount to 20,000 –30,000 per year.

The need to develop new supply routes has been caused by the surging demand for passenger cars in Russia. As the newspaper reports, 423,229 passenger cars were sold in Russia in 2006, the number was 720,143 in 2007 and has already surpassed one million in 2008.