Russian Port Upgrades Its Infrastructure

As with other ports throughout the world, despite a slackened world economy, major improvements are underway.

Russia’s Commercial Port of Vladivostok has received new equipment for the handling of cargo. Included in the equipment are four cranes, weighing 1,000 tons each, for handling containers.

The cranes were purchased as the result of a feasibility study and year-and-a-half of work that included road reconstruction, installation of under-crane rails, and upgrading of engineering and electrical networks at the port.

Purchase of the equipment is part of the general strategy of the Far Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO), Russia’s largest container operator. “Vladivostok Commercial Seaport is the only one in the Far East to operate cargo handling equipment like this,” claims Vyachesalv Pertsev, the port’s general director. He says the port handled 250,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) containers in 2008 and by 2010 that figure will climb to 650,000 TEU.

The Port of Vladivostok is located in the northwest of Golden Horn Bay, which is ice-free all year. It presently serves 16 shipping lines. They include 10 container lines, four roll on-roll off carriers and two passenger lines. The Port serves both overseas and short sea shipping traffic in the Asia-Pacific region. Its major port links are with South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. With its truck and rail links, it serves domestic cabotage needs, as well.

FESCO Transportation Group operates port facilities at Russia’s three major ocean gateways, on the Baltic, Black Sea and Pacific. www.fesco.ru/en