Cargotec has signed “an agreement of strategic co-operation” with Federal State Unitary Enterprise (FSUE) Rosmorport, which operates seaports in the Russian Federation and owns the world’s largest ice breaker fleet.
This agreement will allow the Finnish cargo-handling equipment manufacturer to advise on Russian marine transport infrastructure development.
Documents confirming the co-operation were signed in the presence of the trade ministers representing Russia and Finland, including Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov.
Ilkka Herlin, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Cargotec, said that the co-operation was gratifying because Russia is committed to building ecological ports, as well as maritime infrastructure. On top of the agreement, Herlin and Ivanov discussed organising a Baltic Sea Action Summit in St Petersburg next year, which would look to identify ways to preserve the environment in the Baltic Sea.
“Rosmorport co-operation is a high-level leverage for participating in ports’ infrastructure development. This co-operation will also increase our opportunities to present our know-how in Russia,” says Mikael M kinen, Cargotec’s President and CEO. “We are delighted to start this strategic co-operation with a leading and global company like Cargotec that has decades of first-hand knowledge of marine transport solutions. Their know-how of port automation will be very beneficial for us when we discuss Russian ports infrastructure development. This agreement shows that Russia is interested in co-operation with Finnish companies to modernise its port capacity.
“The Strategy of seaport infrastructure development in Russia until 2030 is aimed at doubling the port capacity within the next ten years. Therefore, co- operation with Finnish companies is an important step in the development of the industry,” said Andrey Lavrishchev, General Director of FSUE Rosmorport.
Ivanov said that the agreement is a step towards a more modern Russian infrastructure. “Russia is going to modernise its ports, especially on the Northeast Passage and Arctic region. Russia needs long term co-operation with trusted partners like Cargotec which has important know-how in optimising harbour activities.”
The Netherlands and Russia strengthen trade tie
The Port of Rotterdam and the Russian port organisation Rosmorport want to work towards a strategic partnership on port infrastructure development in the Netherlands and Russia. This is one of the first results of recent discussions between Governments of the two countries to step up their economic cooperation. Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Maxime Verhagen and the Russian Deputy Premier Viktor Zubkov met recently in the Netherlands with business representatives to talk about strengthening bilateral co-operation in agriculture, energy, transport, innovation and technology – areas that offer many opportunities to Dutch entrepreneurs in Russia. The two ministers signed an agreement in which their countries pledge to promote research into energy efficiency and sustainable energy. NL Agency, an agency of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, and the Russian Energy Agency will act as matchmakers between Dutch and Russian universities and institutes for energy research.
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 modern Russian 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, and the new dry cargo port near Taman will handle the first ship in 2016. The Deputy Minister of Transport noted that along with the port construction, the Government is working on a creation of off-dock rail tracks, and started this in February by 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 very soon, to have all ‘bottlenecks’ issues on the railroad resolved before the new port is launched,” said the official. “Last year alone, Russian Railways (RZD) failed to transport some 60 million tonnes 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 tonnes.
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 programme the federal Government has set aside roughly about 1.25 billion for the construction of the new port of Taman. “But the construction scope has changed significantly since the federal target programme 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. 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 will only require the removal of 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 kilometres- 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 on port news
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 fertiliser
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 tonnes of cargo. The port design is scheduled for completion in 2012. The first phase project construction is scheduled for 2013-2016.
TRANSTEC 2012 exhibition and conference is a platform to discuss and exchange experiences in port and shipping developments
The Maritime Collegium of the Government of RF have provided their traditional support for TRANSTEC-2012 International transport exhibition and 3-rd International ports and shipping conference. Both events have been included to the Collegium plan of events for 2012, approved at the Collegium annual session held in the Ministry of Transport of RF, Moscow, 21 December 2011. The exhibition and conference will reflect a vital maritime transport development issues, discussed during Moscow session, including pollution prevention measures and technologies, port fleet construction and operation, ports modernisation. The Collegium stated, Russian ports development is a key point in connection Russia with traditional and emerging markets. Actual 2010 Russian ports cargo turnover, as per Ministry information, have exceeded the record of 526 mln. tonnes, new port cargo capacity for 200 mln. tonnes have been developed in Russian ports Ust-Luga, Primorsk, Varandey, Prigorodnoe, Taman, Caucasus, Tape, Novorossiysk, Kaliningrad, Vysotsk, Vostochny, Vanino recently. Russian ports infrastructure and superstructure modernisation and efficiency increase was seen as the next nearest inevitable step.
Ministry of Transport of RF, ROSMORPORT FSUE, Union of Russian ship owners confirm membership in “TRANSTEC-2012” Advisory Committee.
According to the official support, provided to “TRANSTEC-2012” transport exhibition and Third International ports and shipping conference by the Maritime Collegium of the Government of RF, Ministry of Transport of RF, Government of St.Petersburg, Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Ministry of Transport by the official letter considers, the exhibition and conference will display and discuss the most vital issues to increase the sea transportation and port cargo turnover in Russian foreign trade, competitiveness and investment attractiveness of ports, new approaches in ports and water infrastructure civil engineering, inland waterways development. On this basis the Advisory (Programme) Committee of the Third International ports and shipping conference President from Russian side is officially appointed Mr.V.A.Olersky, Deputy Minister of Transport of RF. The list of others already confirmed Committee members include : General Director of FSUE “ROSMORPORT” A.V.Lavrischev, who will present a plenary conference paper “Strategy of Russian marine port infrastructure development till 2030”. His engagement is also followed by membership of: Director of Department of State policy in sea and river transport of the Ministry of transport of RF K.G.Palnikov, President of the Union of Russian ship owners M.A.Romanovsky, General Director of CNIIMF Sea Fleet research institute V.I. Peresypkin, Rector of State University for (inland) water communications S.O.Baryshnikov, in addition to the support, provided to the event by Association of sea commercial ports- ASOP, Coordination Council on TransSiberian transportation, “LenmorNIIproject” JSC, Krylov Shipbuilding Research Institute FSUE.
