“Rosmorport cooperation is a high-level leverage for participating in ports’ infrastructure development. This cooperation will also increase our opportunities to present our know-how in Russia,” says Mikael Mäkinen, Cargotec’s President and CEO.

“We are delighted to start this strategic co-operation with a leading and global company like Cargotec that has decades of first-hand knowledge of marine transport solutions. Their know-how of port automation will be very beneficial for us when we discuss Russian ports infrastructure development. This agreement shows that Russia is interested in co-operation with Finnish companies to modernise its port capacity. The Strategy of seaport infrastructure development in Russia until 2030 is aimed at doubling the port capacity within the next ten years. Therefore, co-operation with Finnish companies is an important step in the development of the industry,” says Andrey Lavrishchev, General Director of FSUE Rosmorport. FSUE Rosmorport operates seaports of the Russian Federation, and has the world’s largest icebreaker fleet. 

The documents for strategic co-operation was signed with the presence of the Russian and Finnish trade ministers, deputy prime minister Sergey B Ivanov from Russia and minister for trade and European affairs of Finland Alexander Stubb.

“Russia is going to modernise its ports, especially on the Northeast Passage and Arctic region. Russia needs long term co-operation with trusted partners like Cargotec which has important knowhow in optimising harbour activities,” says Ivanov.

Ilkka Herlin, chairman of the board of directors of Cargotec stated that this co-operation is pleasing him very much because Russia has committed also to build ecological seaports and maritime infrastructure. Herlin and Ivanov discussed also the idea of organising a Baltic Sea Action Summit in St Petersburg next year.

In the first 9 months of this year, the port handled a total of 60,619 TEU and is expected to reach 80,000 TEU for 2011.

The increase is dedicated to one of the major manufacturers of steel products, Maanshan Iron and Steel, as it decided to ship their products by container. At the end of last year the steel producer, which owns 45% of the port, decided to transport its coils and H-shaped products in containers for its domestic trade to Guangzhou.

Shanying Paper, another large local manufacturer, provided a further boost to throughput as production at the mill increased in response to high demand, leading to increased imports of waste paper from the US and Japan.

Phase Six has two 50,000dwt ro-ro berths with an annual handling capacity of 730,000 vehicles, and one 100,000dwt and two 70,000dwt container berths offering a combined annual container capacity of 2.1 million TEU. Two of the container berths upstream of the ro-ro berths are designed especially for Yangtze barges.

The majority of Yangtze container barges call at Waigaoqiao, where regular shuttle services complete the short distance via the near sea to carry cargo to Shanghai’s Yangshan bonded terminal. From there, ocean-going vessels transport the cargo to overseas markets.

Only about 10 local barge operators own vessels equipped with new technology that enables them to sail both on the river and the near sea and are therefore licensed to offer direct services between inland Yangtze ports and Yangshan.

Seven ports located in the North of Europe have four times the container throughput of the principal eleven ports competing along the Southern coastline of Europe. The analysis concludes that the distribution patterns underlying these shares is efficient, and is explained by a persistent combination of economic and geographical factors. The analysis was carried out on behalf of the Ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg.