The agreement will be effective from 2024 to 2028
Global Ports, a stevedoring division of Delo Group, and PhosAgro Group, one of the world's largest producers of phosphate fertilizers, have agreed to handle fertilizer exports through a sea terminal operated by Global Ports in St. Petersburg. The agreement was signed for a period of 5 years and will be effective from 2024 to 2028. The parties will be able to export at least 3 million tonnes of fertilizers a year, Global Ports said in a media release.
The commodity will be delivered from PhosAgro plants to Global Ports’ Petrolesport (PLP) and First Container Terminals (FCT), both located in Great Port of St. Petersburg. Fertilizers in special containers will be loaded onto sea-going vessels.
The agreement was signed on the sidelines of Moscow Transport Week 2023 November 16, 2023.
The new cargo volumes “will increase the capacity utilization of Great Port of St. Petersburg, which is the most important transport hub for Russian foreign trade,” Global Ports CEO Albert Likholet said.
Mikhail Rybnikov, CEO of PhosAgro comments: “For PhosAgro, the Russian market has been and remains a priority. At the same time, under the conditions of external restrictions, our company was able to quickly redirect export flows, increasing the supply of eco-efficient fertilizers to the markets of friendly countries. Partnership with Global Ports will enable PhosAgro to expand and diversify export capabilities”.
Global Ports has customized the infrastructure and equipment of its terminals in St. Petersburg for handling non-containerized cargo since 2022, in order to compensate for container traffic decline in the Baltic Sea. The volume of dry bulk cargo, primarily mineral fertilizers, increased this year, against the backdrop of a gradual restoration of ship calls. As a result of work to attract non-container cargo flows, the volume of bulk cargo at the northwestern terminals of Global Ports in the first nine month of 2023 surged by 89.9% to 4.8 million tonnes.
Global Ports Investments PLC is the leading operator of container terminals in the Russian market by capacity and container throughput. Global Ports’ terminals are located in the Baltic and Far East Basins, key regions for foreign Russian trade and transit cargo flows. Global Ports operates five container terminals in Russia (Petrolesport, First Container Terminal, Ust-Luga Container Terminal and Moby Dik in the Russian Baltic sea, and Vostochnaya Stevedoring Company in the Russian Far East) and two container terminals in Finland (Multi-Link Terminals in Helsinki and Kotka). Global Ports also owns inland container terminal Yanino Logistics Park located in the vicinity of St. Petersburg. In the first half of this year reached 393 000 TEUs.
Delo Group is the main shareholder of Global Ports. Delo Group (the Group) is a Russian transport and logistics holding company founded in 1993. Delo Group is a leader in sea transshipment and rail transportation of containers, as well as deep-sea grain transshipment in Russia. The Group’s companies ensure cargo delivery at all stages of the multimodal transport chain both in the Russian domestic and international traffic. The Group has 9 marine terminals and 47 inland terminals. The total capacity of marine terminals is at 3.9 million TEUs and 7 million tonnes of grain per year, while inland terminals have a capacity of 3.7 million TEUs per year. Delo Group operates a fleet of 40,000 container flatcars and containers with a total capacity of 230,000 TEU, as well as its own fleet of vessels.
PhosAgro is a Russian vertically integrated company and is one of the leading producers in the world of phosphate mineral fertilizers and high-grade apatite concentrate with a P2O5 content of 39% or more. The company's main products are used by consumers from about 100 countries worldwide. In addition to Russia and the CIS countries, PhosAgro’s priority markets are the countries of Latin America, Europe and Asia.
The companies signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in April 2023 to boost the export of fertilizers through the Baltic Sea Basin ports.