The Russian pipe producing company United Metallurgical Company (OMK) has announced that it has started the construction of the first phase of its transshipment terminal at Ust-Luga merchant sea port on the Baltic Sea, in the Leningrad region.
Accordingly, the project includes the construction of three deep-water berths. The terminal is to cover an area of 40 hectares, which will allow it to perform total transshipments of more than four million mt of cargo per year, and at the same time to store more than 300,000 mt of rolled steel products.
The terminal's deep water area will be deepened to16 m, which will make it capable of handling vessels with carrying capacity of up to 100,000 mt. According to the general plan for the development of the merchant sea port Ust-Luga, the total freight turnover of its terminals will be increased from the current 10 million mt to 170 million mt by 2015.
The first phase of the transshipment terminal in the Ust-Luga merchant sea port is scheduled to be commissioned in 2012, while the commissioning of its second stage is planned for 2013.
The investment agreement for the construction of the transshipment terminal was signed between OMK and Ust-Luga Company, the customer-developer of the Ust-Luga merchant sea port, in June 2008, while the capital investments for the construction have been estimated at about Ruble 3 billion (approx. $104 million).
OMK decided to construct its terminal in order to expand the geography of its product supplies to CIS countries and non-CIS countries, and to reduce delivery costs.