OREANDA-NEWS. January 13, 2011. Toyota cars were handled today at the Big Port of St. Petersburg, the first shipment of this car manufacturer since the deliveries suspended in October 2008, said Konstantin Skovoroda, CEO Russian Transport Lines Group (RTL), which operates a terminal at the Marine Fishing Port (MFP) and handled the cargo.

The Thames Highway laden with Toyota vehicles docked this morning at MFP’s Pier No P-1. The vessel is operated by K Line European Sea Highway Services GmbH (agent company Inflot Worldwide Ferry Services).

According to Konstantin Scovoroda, RTL Group won last fall the tender of Toyota Co to handle the cars at the port of St. Petersburg. As of now, the vehicles are transported by a Malmo-St. Petersburg shipping line.

As Mikhail Prosvirkin, general director of the agent company told with PortNews, 657 Toyota cars will be unloaded today from the ship, as well as the shipment of Ford and Renault vehicles. In the future the delivery of new Toyota cars will be transported via the port of St. Petersburg, and the port of Ust-Luga. From 2009 K Line operator has shipped to the port of Ust-Luga 40,000 Toyota vehicles, Ust-Luga JSC said citing the company’s year-end operational results.
 
Russian Transport Lines LLC was founded in 2004 as a full-cycle logistics company. Since 2005, RTL Group has worked under direct contracts with car manufacturers like Nissan, Peugeot, Citroen, Infiniti, Renault, Ford. In 2006, the Group, in partnership with Marine Fishing Port has commissioned at the Port of St. Petersburg the first in Russia marine terminal to handle imported vehicles. The group is currently implements an investment project for construction of a marine terminal ‘New Harbor’ in the Leningrad region, which was included in May 2009 into the Ust-Luga boundaries.