New grain terminal speeds up Panamax turnaround times

According to the port’s chief executive Igor Vilinov the terminal, with an annual capacity of 4m tonnes, will be able to turn around a panamax in 72 hours instead of the 120 that had previously been the case.

The new terminal is the result of an investment of $82m, and is said by Mr Vilinov to operate at the highest-possible environmental standards and safety standards.

He predicts it will become Russia’s fastest shipment complex, conforming to international standards and using cutting edge grain shipment technology. “It will help to secure our position as a leading port dealing in high-value cargoes,” he says.

Novorossiysk is one of the largest ports in Russia, and indeed Europe. It is in the eastern part of the Black Sea, at the top of the Tsemesskaya Bay, one of only three commercially viable gateways for passage by ship between Russia and the open seas.

That makes it relatively close to the world’s major foreign markets, since cargo destinations in southern and central Russia, Transcaucasia and Central Asia are eight days closer to South East Asia than the route via the Rotterdam/Hamburg-St Petersburg corridor.