Sea Freight to Russia and the CIS: How the Shipment Is Organised and What the Exporter Must Supply

16 December 2016Trade Pulse

Most of the volume cargo that reaches Russia and the CIS arrives by sea. Water covers the larger part of the planet, ships beat every other mode on cost per tonne and on capacity, and ports and inland waterways handle throughput that road and rail simply cannot match. For you as the shipper that means one thing: your Russian buyer will almost certainly book the ocean leg, and the way that leg is organised decides which documents you have to issue, how early you have to issue them, and how long the consignment sits at the border.

1. Why your buyer books ocean freight

Ships win on two counts at once: price and deadweight. A single call moves a volume that would take dozens of trucks, and the throughput of sea and river waterways means the limits on dimensions and tonnage are far wider than on any land route. Sea transport is also considered the safest and most reliable mode, which matters for cargo that travels for weeks.

The practical consequence for an exporter is that the ocean leg is rarely a free choice made shipment by shipment. Sailing schedules, vessel types and port windows are fixed in advance, so your production and readiness dates have to be fitted around them — not the other way round. If your consignment misses the booked sailing, the next one may be a week or more away.

2. What a turnkey delivery covers — and where your part ends

On the Russian side the work is normally handled by a transport and logistics company that specialises in sea freight and ocean delivery. Its job is to make the delivery advantageous for the client on every count — price, timing, safety of the cargo — with the minimum of direct involvement from the parties. A turnkey package usually includes:

customs clearance of the consignment;
planning the most rational logistics route;
loading and unloading at the ports, temporary storage, in-port forwarding;
multimodal carriage inside the country under a single contract, with door delivery to the consignee;
a surveyor and insurance — either for the whole carriage or for the charter period alone;
issuing transport and permit documents;
settling all payments: dues, duties and the freight rate;
legal support.

None of that removes your part of the work. Whoever pays for the sea leg under your Incoterms, the description of the goods, the packing, the marking and the commercial paperwork originate with you. The forwarder can only clear what your documents describe.

Sea Freight to Russia and the CIS: How the Shipment Is Organised and What the Exporter Must Supply

A container vessel at berth: sea transport remains the main channel for cargo moving to Russia and the CIS.

3. What the forwarder needs from you before booking

Organising a sea shipment correctly means matching the cargo to the vessel, and that match is made from the data you provide. Three criteria drive it:

the type of cargo — it determines the class of vessel: general cargo (dry bulk carrier), reefer, container ship or tanker;
deadweight and the specific capabilities of the vessel — hold dimensions, hatch openings and similar limits;
sailing frequency and seasonality — how often the service runs and when the window closes.

Your cargo	Vessel and equipment	What the forwarder needs from you
General manufactured goods, boxed or palletised	Container ship, standard box	Gross and net weight, number and size of packages, stowage plan
Food, cosmetics, anything temperature-sensitive	Reefer vessel or reefer container	Required temperature range and permitted deviation, shelf life at shipment
Machinery, out-of-gauge units	General cargo vessel, hold and hatch dimensions decisive	Exact dimensions, lifting points, centre of gravity, disassembly options
Bulk cargo, raw materials	Dry bulk carrier or tanker	Density, hazard classification, loading method
Seasonal shipments	Any — but the sailing window is fixed	A realistic readiness date, confirmed before the booking is placed

Send this data once and in full. Every correction after the booking is placed either changes the rate or moves the consignment to a later sailing.

4. Documents, payments and the customs side

Documentation is one of the most important components of any carriage, and in international carriage it is the component that stops cargo. The transport and permit documents are prepared on the delivery side, but almost every one of them is built from figures and descriptions that only you can supply: the contract, the invoice, the packing list, the description of the goods and their composition, the technical data used for certification.

The freight rate is almost never what holds a consignment at the border. What holds it is a mismatch between the goods as described in your invoice and the goods as declared to customs — a different name, a missing component, a weight that does not agree with the packing list.

Duties, dues and the freight rate itself are settled by the party organising the delivery, so you will not be paying them directly. What you will be asked for is the evidence behind them: what the goods are, what they are made of, where they were produced and what they are worth. Prepare that evidence to be read by someone who has never seen your factory.

5. What to do before you ship

Agree the Incoterms rule with your buyer in writing and confirm who books and pays for the ocean leg, the port handling and the inland delivery.
Send the forwarder the full cargo profile — type, weight, dimensions, packing, temperature and hazard requirements — before the booking, not after.
Give a readiness date you can actually hold. Sailing frequency and seasonality mean a missed window costs days or weeks, not hours.
Make the goods description identical across the contract, the invoice, the packing list and the transport document. One wording, everywhere.
Supply the technical documentation your buyer needs for permit paperwork and certification as early as possible — this work runs in parallel with the voyage, and if it starts late the cargo waits.
Mark and pack for a long sea crossing and for multiple handling operations at the ports, including temporary storage.
Confirm insurance cover and whether a surveyor is being appointed for your consignment.

6. Frequently asked questions

My buyer handles the delivery. Why do I need to know any of this?
Because the customs formalities on arrival are performed on the strength of your documents. The forwarder can plan the route and pay the dues, but it cannot correct a description of the goods that came from you.

Which vessel type will my cargo go on?
That follows from the cargo itself: universal dry cargo vessel, reefer, container ship or tanker. The choice is made from the data you provide about the goods, their weight and their dimensions, together with the hold and hatch limits of the available vessels.

Can one company handle everything after the port?
Yes. A turnkey service covers customs clearance, port handling, temporary storage, in-port forwarding and multimodal carriage to the consignee's door under a single contract, so your buyer deals with one counterparty rather than five.

What most often delays a consignment at the border?
Documents, not transport. Missing permit paperwork or a description that does not match the goods will keep cargo at the terminal long after the vessel has sailed on.

Summary

Sea transport remains the cheapest and most capacious way to move goods to Russia and the CIS, and your buyer will normally book it as a turnkey service covering clearance, port handling, storage and inland delivery. Your part of that chain is data and documents: an accurate cargo profile before the booking, a realistic readiness date, and one consistent description of the goods everywhere. The border risk on such shipments is almost entirely documentary, and it is resolved on the shipper's side, in advance. Request a consultation and we will go through your specific consignment.

We can take the sea leg, customs clearance and certification of your consignment to Russia end to end.

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