Evaluation of manufacturing unit location in Russia - European trade and logistics perspective

The research examines the location problem of a manufacturing unit as a two-level process. Firstly, at the upper level, macro-analysis of the eight Russian regions was conducted to estimate the potential of placing the unit on one of these. The location-selection decision was made via the most frequently used multi-criteria evaluation approach (AHP) based on the eight decision factors. At the second step, the analysis on micro-level was carried out to define the specific location within the selected region. In particular, the research looks at the industrial zone of Ust-Luga seaport located in the North-West region. The expected multiplicative effect, which can be derived from an integrated development of manufacturing and seaport as well as railways, was analytically evaluated. Application to the described agglomeration economies help to understand, why economic activity clusters together.