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Monday,
August 6,
2007, #148 (1415) Hakim Matchianov, Rezerv Capital Corporation chairman and owner of the SMAT Kavkaz-Poti ferry, announced plans to sell 49 percent of his stocks to Armenian companies on August 2. He went on to emphasize the importance of the Kavkaz-Poti ferry route for Armenian cargo. The Kavkaz port is in Russia; Armenia has had difficulties getting its exports to the country since trade links between Georgia and Russia were cut in late 2006. Matchianov then outlined prospects for the recently established SMAT ferry. Expressing regret that only three runs have been carried out by SMAT since April 2007, Matchianov stated that from August onwards four trips a month will be made. He named some of the difficulties the company has recently faced, including a lack of appropriate infrastructure for registering cargo at Kavkaz, and acknowledged the stiff competition presented by the seven other ferry companies operating the same route. But he emphasized that SMAT offers a comparatively fast loading time of one hour, and announced a USD 30 price reduction per train carriage. The SMAT ferry
was launched on April 10, 2007, with a capacity of 50 train cars, but
has since been dogged with problems. |
Kavkaz-Poti
ferry deal