The Greater Port of St. Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland plans to double capacity by 2025 to handle an expected surge in shipments to and from the European Union, Russia’s biggest trading partner.

The port will be able to handle 70 million tons of cargo a year by 2015 and 120 million tons annually by 2025, versus 60 million tons last year, said Nikolai Asaul, head of the city’s transport committee. Most of the increased capacity will be for container traffic.

FGUP Rosmorport, the state-run operator of the port, plans to spend 4.7 billion rubles ($195 million) on upgrades and repairs this year, General Director Yury Parfenov said at a meeting at City Hall late Wednesday.

Cargo volume at the port has tripled in the past 10 years, since the start of the country’s current economic boom. Further expansion will require building new road and rail links to the complex, said Andrei Karpov, an adviser to St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko.

News source: Times.spb.ru
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