Moby Dick and flood prevention complex: direct dependence
Conflict related to container terminal Moby Dick has been lasting for two months already. The dispute involved not only the investor, St. Petersburg Administration and Rostroi, which is in charge of construction of the dam (St. Petersburg flood prevention complex, KZS). Cargo owners and container shipping lines consider possibilities of redirecting cargo flows to other terminals.
In 2006, throughput of container terminal Moby Dick (Kronshtadt, port of St. Petersburg) totaled 159.5 thou TEU against 116.8 thou TEU in 2005, Administration of St. Petersburg Seaport reports. Thus, two 180,000 TEU phases of the terminal turned to be under-loaded.
Three container lines call to Moby Dick terminal. The majority of containers coming to Kronshtadt are delivered by Finland-based company Containerships, the investor of Moby Dick terminal. Besides Finnish line, feeder line Team Lines and shipping line MSC calls to the island. Major points of these lines in the port of St. Petersburg are First Container Terminal and Petrolesport, leading stevedoring companies of the port of St. Petersburg in terms of container turnover. In 2006 they handled 1.2 million TEU.
It is not an easy task for captains to lead vessels to the terminal. As PortNews IAA learnt from one of the captains, “Approach canal is rather narrow and there are some limitations for night calls”. Comments of the of the feeder line representative were much shaper – “We would prefer not to call there but the port of St. Petersburg is out of breath being in short of container terminals, so Moby Dick is a kind of jolt of air for us”.
Representative of Team Lines told PortNews IAA the company decided to start calling to Kronshtadt when Moby Dick announced officially the plan to develop its business. “Moby Dick officially announced its intention to build a 0.5-million TEU terminal and we considered the fact in the plans of our company”. According to the terminal’s management the project is to be implemented in 5 phases at the area of 50 hectares. The disputable plot of land (5.5 hectares) demanded to be handed over to Rostroi for temporary use as it is needed for construction of KZS has no access to the harbor waters and is planned to be used for stacking of containers.
The sources told PortNews IAA that construction of a container terminal at island is a certain risk. Such a project is limited by the possibilities of a technological dam road. Moby Dick is completely responsible for taking of containers from the terminal. The company says it may ensure container turnover. “If we sea the containers are not taken from the terminal we will stop calling there,” the line’s representative says.
PortNews IAA failed to find out the capacity of the dam road and to determine if it is possible to take the claimed volume of containers away from the terminal. The Committee on Transport-and-Transit Policy of St. Petersburg says further development of the terminal depends directly on finalization of construction works at KZS, which is scheduled for 2010. Before that the capacity of the road linking Kronshtadt and St. Petersburg are limited. That means Moby Dick’s plans on raising container turnover through introduction of the third phase may fail not only because of the above dispute but also because of limited capacity if the road.
However, in 2-3 years, container throughput of the port of St. Petersburg may be increased by 1.5 million TEU without taking Moby Dick into consideration. First Container Terminal and Petrolesport plan development of their facilities. Sea Port of St. Petersburg OJSC plans construction of a new container terminal (from 1 million to 1.4 million TEU) at the territory of Forth Stevedoring Company. The above projects as well as a container terminal being built in the port of Ust-Luga may take the majority of cargo flow directed to the port of St. Petersburg. The terms scheduled by Moby Dick and those of other container projects are almost the same. In such a case, Moby Dick will account for only one fifth of total container turnover in the port of St. Petersburg.