Gulftainer goes into Ust Luga

The investment follows a joint venture agreement last year between Gulftainer and Prominvest, a state-owned Russian company, to spend up to $500 million acquiring port and logistics assets in Russia and Eastern Europe. Gulftainer is expected to invest more than US$275 million into the terminal venture.

Ust-Luga is being promoted as an alternative to neighbouring St. Petersburg, Russia’s biggest container hub, which has suffered from bouts of congestion as it struggles to keep pace with rapid growth in traffic.

National Container Co, Russia’s biggest port operator, is also opening a container terminal in Ust-Luga, which should be operational soon. However, there is plenty to go around, Russia’s Baltic ports handle something like 60% of the nation’s container traffic.