An analysis of shipping rates strongly suggests that transporting U.S. products to Siberia is not prohibitively expensive. Lower product prices can more than make up for this differential. Goods destined for Siberia that reach Russia by sea are generally shipped via the Port of St. Petersburg. In fact, even though cities like Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk are closer to the Far East ports, shipping times from St. Petersburg are generally shorter. The Russian Government and various Russian Far East transportation companies have announced lower tariffs to encourage foreign companies to ship cargo on the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
Rail is by far the most common means of transporting goods to Siberia.
For containerized cargo, the 20-foot container is the dimension most frequently used in Russia. In general, use of containers is extremely expensive and more difficult than shipping in ordinary freight cars, since much of the Siberian warehousing infrastructure is designed to off-load goods directly from freight cars. A number of freight forwarders coordinate reloading and shipping cargo to Siberia. These firms lease freight cars from the Russian State Railways and provide conventional freight carriage, refrigerated service, and open freight cars to all Siberian cities with rail service. Siberian Transport, Siberian Express, and Shirl are among the the most highly regarded.