APM Rolls Out Digital Export Processing at Russian Terminals

A paperless export processing system has been introduced at Petrolesport PLP and Ust-Luga Container Terminal ULCT in Russia. The company’s First Container Terminal became the first Russian terminal to transfer to a fully paperless export management system for containers in 2020. Now customers of all marine terminals of the Group in the North-West of Russia will be able to manage export shipments via the Global Ports Unified Customer Portal. Digitising the last paper element of export processing, a shipment order, speeds up the processing of cargo shipments. The technology of the digital exchange of legally binding documents with the customs authority is based on Global Ports’ Customer Portal and Sea Port’s Portal software functionality. The adoption of this technology means that the procedure of order preparation by forwarding companies and issuance of documents confirmed by customs has been completely digitised. Moreover, once a digital order has been issued, the terminal may start loading a container onto a vessel immediately without additional approval, further speeding up the process. All participants of the process, the forwarding company, the customs authority, the terminal and the shipping line, have online access to information about the status at all stages of the process. The information operator of the service is ROLIS, an IT-solutions developer (a Global Ports Group company). ROLIS is certified to transmit information to the FCS in electronic form. The terminals are part of the Global Ports group, a joint venture that combines the global expertise of APM Terminals (30.75%) with the local knowledge of Delo (30.75%), one of the largest private transportation and logistics holding companies in Russia. Global Ports is the leading operator of container terminals in the Russian market by capacity and container throughput based on 2020 throughput and information published by the Association of Sea Commercial Ports.