Ust-Luga: unite and rule
Automobile component of automobile-railway ferry complex in Ust-Luga port (Leningrad region) and multipurpose transloading complex Yug-2 are to be integrated under unified management. Yug-2 is to undergo diversification of cargoes.
Strong ties
Establishment of a new stevedoring company is under consideration in order to organize operation of the automobile ferry in the port of Ust-Luga. As PortNews IAA learnt from Valery Izrailyt, Chairman of Ust-Luga Company BoD, “the issues related to operation of the automobile ferry have not been solved yet. But there are lots of alternatives here – to hire a stevedore like PULtrans did or to organize a joint stevedoring company with Ust-Luga Sea Merchant Port”.
PULtrans is a joint stock company with joint participation of Russian Railways OJSC and Ust-Luga Company OJSC. PULtrans is responsible for all railway-related forwarding operations in the port of Ust-Luga.
Moreover, unified management of the automobile component of automobile-railway ferry complex and multipurpose transloading complex Yug-2 is under consideration as well. According to Valery Izrailyt, it would raise the efficiency of management and investments. “There are no technical obstacles here as those projects are technologically close in terms of both infrastructure and territory,” the company’s BoD Chairman explains.
The ferry is to provide regular railway, automobile and passenger service at Ust-Luga-Baltiysk – German ports line. Total area of the first launch complex is 23.65 hectares, the quay line is 440 meters, design throughput is 2.3 million tonnes including 1.2 million tonnes by railway and 1.1 million tonnes of automobile. Capital investment in the project exceeded RUR 6 bln as of the beginning of 2009.
The construction and maintenance of internal port roads is to be consolidated as well. The companies operating in the port have already agreed to share participation in construction and operation of port roads and fire station.
Yug-2 rolls away from foreign cars
Currently, Yug-2 mainly handles ro-ro cargo – Toyota and Lexus passenger cars. However, general decline of their sales made the Ust-Luga Company (owner of the complex) consider the issue of cargo diversification. “In the current context with falling turnover of different cargoes the main task of stevedores is to determine optimal cargo range,” Aleksandr Goloviznin, deputy Director General of Ust-Luga Company, told PortNews IAA. According to him, Yug-2 is quite flexible – the territory being used for handling ro-ro cargo may be cut and expanded depending on the situation.
The company is now preparing the second launch complex of Yug-2. It is likely to be put into operation as early as in September-October 2009. As PortNews IAA was told by Valery Izrailyt, Yug-2 is fddesigned to handle 4.5 million tonnes of cargo. General cargo canbe transported by ro-ro ferries.
According to the plan, the territory adjacent to Yug-2, container terminal and automobile component of the ferry complex is to be occupied by a logistics warehousing center with the functions of an in-land storage facility of the automobile terminal as well as a ground for storing, loading and unloading of containers.