Russia’s largest coal port celebrates its 40-year anniversary. The company has approached the date with a 18-mln throughput and a large-scale investment project on construction of the Third Phase of marine coal terminal being implemented in full swing.

Rosneft and ExxonMobil have made an efficient start in a sprint for the western Arctic fields development. Just the other day the first vessel called at the Murmansk based new oil terminal of Karmorneftegaz, a JV between the two companies. After a meeting Rosneft President Igor Sechin and Murmansk region Governor it was decided to create on a base of Murmansk State Technical University the so-called the Arctic Competency Centre.

Ukraine is likely to lose 2.76% of import and 1.33% of export cargo flows in 2014, or 2.18% of total loaded container flow.

Media-Group PortNews celebrated its 10-year anniversary in Moscow, at the 22nd floor of the Golden Ring Hotel. The celebration was attended by our friends who have been supporting us over the decade.

Construction of dry cargo area in the sea port of Taman is a long-awaited project, and there is no viable alternative to that in the current economic and geopolitical realities.

Public Council of Russia’s Transport Ministry has approved the draft Port Development Strategy through 2030. According to the revised document, the ports of Crimea are to be developed primarily as passenger ports, dry cargo district of port Taman is to be built in conjunction with the bridge across the Kerch Strait while port facilities are to be developed outside city limits.

Summa Group has announced its participation in large-scale port projects in the Far East and Dagestan. Aleksandr Vinokurov, the Group President, tells IAA PortNews about these project and the plans of Summa Group on using the fleet of icebreakers and on modernization of FESCO fleet.

If Peter the Great’s achievements were acknowledged as a window to Europe, present-day Russia is cutting transport corridors in the Great Wall of China. The development of two corridors has been announced already with the third one proposed recently. They are supposed to build up cargo turnover of Far East ports making them transit bases for cargo flows between China and the states of the Asia-Pacific region.

Saint-Petersburg is the first in the Baltic region in terms of the number of tourists arriving by water while the Southern Basin is anxious about resolving the situation with Ukraine. Meanwhile, Arctic regions and the Far East are busy developing new water related tourism projects.

An immense market is being formed in Russia for shipbuilding which is associated with the large-scale plans for Arctic and continental shelf development, modernization of auxiliary fleet, icebreakers and naval ships. Is domestic industry ready to meet this challenge or is it to let the foreign partners skim the cream off?