Baltic mooring for Ust-Luga containers

National Container Company (NCC) has completed the construction of the first two berths in the port of Ust-Luga. The terminal is to be put into operation in December 2008.

National Container Company has completed construction and assembly works at the first two berths of Baltic Container Terminal (No3 and No4) with a total length of up to 440 meters. In 2008, the project also envisions dredging to deepen to 13.5 meters. Besides, NCC will start forming of a rear part of the new container terminal and construction of buildings.

“It is the first phase of the construction. In future, the berth line will be 1,700 meters long,” Andrei Bezsalov, Director General of Baltic Container Terminal, says. “In December 2008, the first Konecranes STS crane will be installed at the terminal (ship-to-shore crane with a capacity of some 120,000 TEU), in 2009 the terminal will be fitted with 3 more cranes of the same type.” Total capacity of the terminal’s first phase is to make 500,000 TEU.Total investments into construction of six berths in the port of Ust-Luga will total $800 million by 2020. The berths will be capable of handling up to 3 million TEU per year and accepting vessels with up to 6,000 TEU in capacity. The second phase is to be put into operation in 2014, which will enable the terminal to reach its design capacity of 1.5 million TEU.

Throughout last 5 years, container market growth in Russia was some 25% per year – from 2.3 million TEU in 2002 to almost 3 million TEU in 2007. Experts forecast that by 2015 Russian container market will grow to 8.5 million TEU. According to Evgeni Yuzhilin, Vice-President of NCC, 25% of cargo transits the terminals of Finland and the Baltic states, while the deficit of container handling facilities will remain till 2012 and will be filled when Ust-Luga terminal reaches its design capacity by 2015. He does not rule out the possibility of the Group’s purchase of new terminals. According to NCC development strategy, the Group plans to create a network of maritime container terminals in major ports of Russia, CIS and Baltic region to be linked by railways and roads with inland container terminals and logistics centers.

Information:

National Container Company was established in 2002. It comprises the following operating terminals: First Container Terminal (FCT) in St. Petersburg, Novorossiysk Container Terminal (NUTEP) in Novorossiysk, Ilyichevsk Container Terminals (ICT) in Ukraine. Besides, there is a number of project under construction: Baltic Container Terminal in Ust-Luga of the Leningrad region, Shushary Logistics Terminal in St. Petersburg, container terminal in the port of Wilgelmshafen of Germany (participates as a partner) to be put into operation in 2010. NCC was incorporated by First Quantum. From 2006, Transport Group FESCO is a shareholder of NCC. The control stock of FESCO is held by Industrial Investors. First Quantum and FESCO own 50% of NCC stock each.

Source: NCC