The St. Petersburg Sea Port and the Severstaltrans company are planning the launch of a major construction project for railroad-container transportation between St. Petersburg, Moscow and Novorossiisk.

According to Igor Rusu, the general director of the port, the project will include the construction of a container terminal at one of the Moscow railway stations, the purchasing of locomotives and rolling stock, and the setting up of a new operating company. All stages of the project should be accomplished in a period of about two years.

Talking to the RosBusinessConsulting information agency last Wednesday, Rusu said that the port of St. Petersburg and Severstaltrans will probably participate in the development of the container terminal in the port of Novorossiisk, whlikely to begin in the next few years.

The total cost of the project is still being established, as the parties decide its scope and details. That process should be completed in the next few months.

The project hopes to meet the targets of the strategic plan for the development of the port's container-handling capacity for the term running until 2010.

According to that plan, approved by the port's shareholders and board of directors and announced on Wednesday, the container-handling capacity of the port will be increased from 350,000 to 2.5 million containers annually.

The project is based on a best-case forecast which predicts growth of about 15 percent in the region's container-cargo sector, Seanews.ru Web site reports. The medium- and short-range forecasts predict 11 percent and 8 percent growth in the sector respectively.

At present, the project comprises the reconstruction of an existing mooring line, construction of a new container terminal and warehouses, installation of new cranes and construction of a new automobile entryway and checkpoint.

Total investment in the project will be in the region of $400 million. The port itself is ready to provide around half of this sum, while the other half will be attracted as investment.

The operator for the new handling facilities will be the existing First Container Terminal Company (PKT), 19 percent of the stock having been purchased by Severstaltrans from the St. Petersburg Sea Port about a month ago, according to Anna Vostrukhova, head of the press service at Severstaltrans.

In May 2001, Severstaltrans, a subsidiary responsible for transport at the Severstal holding company, one of Russia's largest metal producers, received a permit from the Railways Ministry to become an official railway operator. The company then became the largest shareholder in the Kolomensky Locomotive Plant.

Having attracted Severstaltrans, PKT became the second largest container terminal, trailing the container terminal at Vostochny Port. The company owns a controlling stake in the Vostochny Port and plans to increase it's share in PKT to 50 percent. This will give the company an opportunity to establish its own transport corridor from Europe to Asia.

Analysts have tended to positively evaluate Severstal's policies in relation to the ports.

"If Severstal invests in their development, and doesn't abuse the tariffs, everyone will profit from that," Boris Lukov, deputy head of the International Trans-Siberian Coordination Council told Vedomosti, following the announcement of the purchase of PKT stock

Photo by Sergei Grachev / SPT

News source: The St. Petersburg Times
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