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MEMORANDUM FOR: Kathy Brion
Affairs Division
Bureau of East-West Trade Department of Commerce
Status of Soviet Landbridge
Attached is our current assessment of the Soviet Union's Landbridge service as you requested. Should you have any additional questions concerning this topic, call
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Office of ti-Gikoiu-i. Research-
Attachment As stated.
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UNCLASSIFIED
Landbridge Traffic Soars
Annual freight volume on the TransSiberian Landbridge has soared since the Soviets introduced the serviceandbridge is presently carrying nearlyercent ofontainers moving annually between the Far East and Western Europe. Its share of traffic between these major trading areas will continue to increase as the Soviets offer more attractive rates for the service.
he Soyiets began offering to haul containers overland from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic Sea atelow those on all-sea routes. Previously, most goods moving between the two widely-separated regions had moved by ship. When the service began, handling facilities were crude and service was erratic and plagued by delays.
"- "in the past four years, the Soviets havehandling facilities on the Pacific coast at Nakhodka and Vladivostok and have double-tracked major sections of the .ransSiberian railn the Baltic Sea, Moscow hascontainer facilities at Leningrad and Riga to handle increasing volumes of Landbridge traffic. In addition, existing rail service to Europe has recently been supplemented with service to Iran.
The success of the Soviets' effort is causing deep concern for the Europe-Far East Freight Conference, which sots rates and allocates liner sailings on the Europe-Asia sea lanes. Steamship companies in the Conference have been losing business due to the recession, and tho Conference has been attempting to impose sanctions on shippers who occasionally use the Soviet
-ail service.
Competition from the TransSiberian route could get tougher if Soviet container-handling facilities are expanded as planned during the next few years. Such expansion is underway already at the Soviet port of Tallin, which will become the USSR's third major Baltic container port. Ilichevsk, the Black Sea port near Odessa is also being expanded for TransSiberian rail traffic.
Meanwhile, the Soviets are competing harder on the price front. Moscow recently began offering to return half the freight charges if scheduled transitoays, depending on the distance involved) are not met. Transit time by competing ocean transport has boon roughly the same since the reopening of tho Suez Canal, although previously Landbridge was substantially faster.
Rw
Major Cities Served by Soviet Land Bridge
Original document.
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