There is no sense to talk about boosting the competitiveness of Russian ports without improving the legislation related to of the currently effective procedure of vessel inspection, including a border and customs control commission on board, customs routine causing delays of ships en route Russia’s inland waterways. The Russian Ministry of Transport has triggered changes in the current legislation. The process of harmonization of the draft amendments by the scores of governmental agencies can take a long time.

A year ago, the participants of International Conference ‘The Future of Russian Ports’ (during ‘Transtec’ Expo) we discussing mainly the impact of the global financial crisis and how the Russian port industry will come out of it. But this year representatives of the companies are focused more on the launch of new projects and future development plans, which in itself can not but rejoice. PortNews gives coverage of the most interesting for the port industry issues raised during the conference.

The implementation of Murmansk Transport Hub, the ambitious project seems to be delayed despite the fact that big investors have been already prepared to invest and the federal government has allocated funds for the project. The formation of the port special economic zone might help get the things started.

Construction of a large Ro-Ro cargo ferry terminal at the Russian Black Sea port of Kavkaz was announced. The customer of the project is Rosmorport. The new terminal project is designed to redirect the flow of Ro-Ro cargoes from the ports of Ukraine to the Russian harbor.

In the next several years, Russia will have to renovate completely its river fleet: the ships still operated, are outdated, but most of bulk carriers and tankers, built 30-40 years ago, will either should be sold for scrapping, or will be subjected to thorough modernization. The fleet building and renovation program is intended for thousands of ships and tens of billions of rubles.

Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port Group (NCSP) has announced the acquisition transaction of a 100-percent equity stake in Primorsky Commercial Port LLC. The agreed terms of the transaction (acquisition of a 100-percent stake in Primorsky Commercial Port LLC) include the sale by the controlling beneficial owners of the NCSP's controlling stake to the beneficially owners of Primorsky Commercial Port’s stake (Transneft JSC and Investment Group Summa Capital).

In recent years the Northwest region of Russia is actively engaged in development of marine tourism. The third largest city in Europe - St. Petersburg having a huge tourism potential, is only now beginning to develop the cruise and ferry tourism. And to visit the Arctic on a nuclear icebreaker was made possible by the proposal of Atomflot.

The abnormal heat put on the way of Russian stevedoring companies - especially those engaged in transshipment of coal a new trial, that has already become a tradition - freezing of cargo. Due to this problem the railcars are idling, the railway approaches are in traffic jams, and Russian Railways JSC introduces conventional embargo. In order not to let this situation repeat from year to year, stevedoring companies need to deal seriously with the replacement of outdated equipment and technology. The investment program of Vostochny Port JSC has this particular aim in preparation for winter.

Russia is trying to revive an old idea, known since Soviet era, about the opening of the regular navigation along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) to Asia-Pacific region, instead of the usual southern shipping lane via the Suez Canal. First of all, the idea is interesting for the Russian gas companies. Thus, Novatek has already shipped on the NSR 70,000 tons of gas condensate to the port of destination Ningbo (China).

Following the container volume rise fertilizer cargo is also demonstrating growth trend in freight turnover of Russian ports. Thus, in January-July, 2010 the volume of fertilizer transshipment rose by 33.5%, to 7.26 million tons. In this case, the unusually hot weather gave rise to the fertilizer market boom - the demand for agri-products in the world is growing. And in general the current economic trends are promising for export of the fertilizer cargo.