Transportation Ministry presents Taman port project in Paris
An official presentation of the project "Creation of Port Taman’s Dry Cargo Area" was held by the Russian Ministry of Transport jointly with Rostransmodernizatsiya at the SITL-2012 exhibition on March 28, 2012. Deputy Transport Minister Victor Olersky told potential investors about ongoing construction and details about the new deepwater project.
The project curator Victor Olersky began his speech saying: "Taman is the first in modern Russia dry cargo port project, which started from scratch and is being implemented comprehensively." The official explained that the construction of the new port of Taman is being carried out under a single project, in contrast, for example, to the project of the Baltic Sea-based Port of Ust-Luga. In addition, it will become the only major deep water port of the Russian Federation on the Black Sea. Therefore, the government pays special attention to implementation of the port project.
The federal state-owned facilities in the port will be completed by 2016, Victor Olersky said. Private investors will also be able to construct their part of the port’s infrastructure facilities. So, the new dry cargo port near Taman will handle the first ship in 2016.
Deputy Minister of Transport noted that along with the port construction the government is working on creation of off-dock rail tracks and started this February building the “9th km” crossing loop. That's where the future trains will be formed for transportation of cargo bound to sea ports of Tuapse, Novorossiysk and Taman. Overall, Russia will invest in the railroad infrastructure project some $450 million by 2013.
Besides, the Ministry has planned the construction of a railway bypass of the Krasnodar transportation node. "The Ministry of Transport is set to begin implementing this project begin very soon, to have all ‘bottlenecks’ issues on the railroad be resolved before the new port is launched," said the official.
"Last year alone, Russian Railways (RZD) failed to transport some 60 million tons of cargo, including those bound to Russian ports. By 2015, if nothing is done for the development of railway infrastructure in Russia, this figure may surge to 230 million tons. Therefore, today, RZD has turned out to be a restraining factor for the development of Russia’s seaports," said Mr. Olersky.
According to the current target program the federal government has set aside roughly about EUR 1 billion 250 million for the construction of the new port of Taman. "But the construction scope has changed significantly since the federal target program was prepared, so we expect an increase in federal funding," said Victor Olersky. He believes the project may be of great interest to private investors. To date, nine Russian investors have announced they would be willing to participate in building a terminal at the port of Taman, namely LLC MetalloInvest, Basic Element Group, Global Ports Investments PLC, JSC Eurochem, UCL Port B.V., United Grain Company and JSC "SUEK," NCC and Gazprom Export). The Transportation Ministry plans to invite bids to select investors for the new port of Taman.
"We expect the most serious competition will be among bidders for contracts for the construction of container, coal and grain terminals", said Victor Olersky.
In addition to the construction of marine terminals investors may be interested in contracts for dredging and land reclamation. The construction of an approach channel only will require to remove about 23-24 million cbm of dredged soil. And not all of the soil can be used for reclamation of new territories - part of the soil should be transported to the construction site of the new port. The Ministry also plans to order the construction of kilometers- long breakwaters, Vessel Traffic Management and Information Systems (VTMIS), the creation of road and rail infrastructure. "The rest is supposed to be developed under the" Rotterdam model”, that is, through the management company," said Olersky.
He said that currently "Rosmorport" is creating a new management company (with involvement of the Krasnodar region administration). The deputy minister did not rule out involvement in the management company of a major port developer, as well as a bank or a financial group. "We don’t have much time to delay the issue with the management company, we need to begin buying out the territories for the future port, so we started the process of registering the company," the official said. The management company will be in charge of land acquisition, land reclamation, the construction of berthing facilities and the leasing of the facilities to private investors. In addition, the MC could by itself or through outsourcing create and operate the port infrastructure.
"The management company will need about $ 2 billion,” said Victor Olersky. “It is possible that the funds will be attracted under the state guarantees."
Victor Olersky also said that the environmental assessment of the project will be held in May this year, and in June the project will be submitted to GlavGosExpertiza.
INFORMATION of PortNews:
The sea port of Taman will be built on the Taman Peninsula (Krasnodar Region) on the basis of public-private partnership (PPP). The port will be integrated into the international transport corridor "North-South." The port construction is funded through the federal target program (FTP) "Development of the Transport System of the Russian Federation for the 2010-2015 period."
The project includes the creation of the following facilities:
- marine container terminals;
- terminals for handling coal, grain, iron ore concentrate, mineral fertilizer,
- shipping approach channel, offshore breakwater and dam structures, piers for cargo handling facilities and port fleet,
- railway, road and engineering infrastructure facilities.
The projected throughput of the port of Taman in 2020 may reach 93.8 million tons of cargo. The port design is scheduled for completion in 2012. The first phase project construction is scheduled for 2013-2016.
Nadezhda Malysheva.