First Container Terminal handled 524,987TEUs in the first three quarters of the year, up from 531,231TEUs for the whole of 2004 across its five berths. But the US$167m first stage of the UstLuga terminal, to become operational in 2007, will have a throughput of up to 900,000TEUs a year and a further three planned stages would pushing capacity to 3.3m TEUs.
The provenance of the Ust-Luga project is interesting. National Container had a 74% stake in the terminal with the balance held by the local port company in a 49-year concession agreement. In 2003 Hamburg-based Eurogate took a 26% interest after agreeing to cooperate on the terminal’s development.
The Russian government will fund around US$60m of the total cost of the first stage including dredging a 4.5km approach channel providing 14.5 increasing to 16 metre depth, land reclamation and quay wall construction. The remaining US$107m is reportedly coming from the private sector and will be used to finance the development of other terminal infrastructure including cargo handling equipment.
