In 2007, throughput of the port of St. Petersburg was not a surprise. In general, handling volumes grew by 10%, though it didn’t help to overpass the level of 60 million tonnes. The highest growth was demonstrated in the sector of dry bulk and loose bulk cargo, while the leading sector in terms of volumes is that of container handling, which confirmed its stable growth. In future, investment programs announced by the port’s stevedoring companies are to raise considerably the share of containerized cargo in the port’s total throughput

This year is likely to witness a number of initiatives related to fishing industry legislation. Upon the order of the first vice-PM of RF Government, State Fishery Committee will in the nearest future work out subordinate legislation in compliance with newly adopted amendments to the Law on fishery and preservation of water biological resources

Mecheltrans LLC (transportation subsidiary of Mechel OJSC) has won the open tender held by Russian Railways OJSC for the sale of the Port Temryuk production complex located at Taman coast of the Sea of Azov. Following complete commissioning of the real estate assets of the Port Temryuk production complex, the company’s management plans to achieve its transshipment capacity of approximately 1.5 million tonnes of cargo in 2008 and approximately 1.8 million tonnes beginning from 2009

Dear friends! One more year is over. The passing year takes away the events, which surprised, pleased or astonished us. The staff of PortNews IAA used to work for you and with you. Every day our agency provided up-to-date information for over 2,000 of Russian and foreign readers. We hope the next year will bring more readers to our website. Happy New Year! We wish you good luck and success in all your projects! Editorial stuff of PortNews IAA

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

Experts say that supply of heavy fuel oil to the bunkering market of the North-West of Russia is likely to change in 2008 after a hydrocracking plant with annual capacity of 2.93 million tonnes of vacuum gas oil is put into operation at Kirishinefteorgsintez Refinery

Sovcomflot Group fleet comprises 124 vessels of 8.7 million tonnes deadweight (DWT), with the average age of tanker fleet being six years. In addition, there are 31 new vessels on order, representing 2.8 million tonnes deadweight

Recent economic and political events impose new terms for operation of port complexes in the Baltic states. The ports have to look for new alternatives to improve attractiveness of their terminals. In particular, a number of the Baltic ports underwent a complete restructuring process

Latvian Government currently works on improvement of the national legislation in order to bring it into compliance with the requirements of international transit transportation. Considering Latvia’s favorable transit location, the unification with European legislation will make it possible for Latvia to be a gateway between Europe, Russia and Asia

The summer navigation 2007 ended with a large-scale disaster in the Kerch Strait. The consequences of the storm of November 11 caused introduction of several restrictions for river vessels. Large ship owners are worried with such a decision being sure that reliable companies should not respond for the faults of careless ship owners