Far Eastern “phantoms”
Far East Basin of Russia is to see the fastest development of seaports’ infrastructure. A good number of projects have been announced there with some of them remaining on paper.
At the meeting held in Kaliningrad on 16 August 2017 Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized that Russia needs dedicated terminals featuring cutting-edge technologies.
“And of course, colleagues, and I am turning now to business representatives, we need to implement new, advanced trans-shipment technologies based on strict environmental standards and norms. At the end of the day, this makes more economic sense in terms of technology. These are obviously long-term investments, but eventually they will also generate returns”, said Vladimir Putin.
Though it was said at the meeting on development of infrastructure in Russia’s North-West, it is fully applicable to the Far East, where the largest number of dry bulk terminals was announced.
Summa Group projects
Construction of a multi-purpose production and transshipment terminal at Vostochny seaport should be performed as part of developing Vostochny-Nakhodka transport hub. The project, investments into which are made by Summa Group, will be operated by Open Port Nakhodka JSC.
Total investments make RUB 46.7 bln including RUB 18.4 bln of Open Port Nakhodka JSC and RUB 28.3 bln of the federal budget for federal property facilities to be built under the Federal Targeted Programme “Development of Russia’s Transport System in 2010 – 2020. Total turnover of the terminal is to make 20 mln t per year.
According to publicly available sources, the terminal is to become operational in 2017. However, the photo of IAA PortNews made this August shows that the construction works have not been started yet.
The works on construction of railway and sea transport facilities under the project on development of Vostochny-Nakhodka transport hub (Primorsky Territory) are executed by Stroynovatsiya LLC (part of Summa Group), which should develop working documentation and build about 40 km of new railway tracks, 11 bridges and flyovers as well as 4 berthing structures with total length exceeding 900 m, disassembling of railway crossings, creation of water area and water approaches, dredging, reconstruction of engineering infrastructure, geodesics.
In 2016 – 2017, Stroynovatsiya was in legal battle with Rostransmodernizatsiya, which did not contribute much to the project facilitation.
One more project of Summa Group is the construction of a dedicated grain terminal at Zarubino port. Designed capacity of the grain terminal is 10 mln t per year when fully operational with the first phase to handle 3.5 mln t per year. According to the schedule, the first phase is to be built between 2018 and 2020, with the terminal to become fully operational in 2023.
Public consultations under this project were held on 18 July 2017 with serious remarks made there. For example, Victor Zhukov, Director General of Zarubinskaya Fleet Base LLC, said that dredging works planned for implementation of the grain terminal project at Zarubino port can have a negative impact on flora and fauna in the Troitsa Bay water area. This can exert negative influence on the terms of the project implementation since it is to obtain an environmental approval.
Sukhodol
HC SBU CJSC is going to build a coal terminal in the Sukhodol Bay (Primorsky Territory) with total capacity of 20 mln t per year.
The investor is set to inject about RUB 30 bln to ensure the access to port infrastructure for small and mid-size coal producing companies.
The terminal is intended for coal exports to the Asia-Pacific region: Korea, India, China, Japan. Commissioning of the terminal which is to have annual capacity of 6 mln t was scheduled for July 2017.
The second and the third phases are to make the terminal fully operational in 2019-2021.
As of today, two berths with length of over 640 m have been designed as well as required production facilities including a railway line of almost 11 km from the Smolyaninovo station. The project’s documentation has obtained the state environmental expert approval.
The works on construction cannot be started because of the ban of the Defence Ministry, the owner of this land. So, the project implementation can be delayed.
Vanino
A coal terminal of Tuva Energy Industrial Corporation CJSC is to be built at Vanino port. The project is associated with the development of the Elegest coal field in the Republic of Tuva. In June 2017, Tuva Energy Industrial Corporation and Russian Railways signed an agreement on cooperation under the project on construction of Elegest – Kyzyl – Kuragono railway. The project is focused on ensuring annual exports of up to 15 mln t of coal from the Elegest field. The railway is to be 410 km long. The terms of the project implementation will depend on the railway construction. It is to take 4.5 years and to be completed in 2022.
Not everything ready
Construction of the dedicated bulk cargo terminals mentioned by the President requires large investments and sufficient capacity of railway approaches. The Far East basin currently numbers 20 coal terminals including only three dedicated ones: Vostochny Port JSC, Daltransugol CJSC and Trade Port Posiet JSC. Time will show if this number is to increase. By all appearances, that is not to happen soon.
Vitaly Chernov
