EuroChem Group AG and Siberian Coal Energy Co. (SUEK) aim to complete construction of their planned 7 million mt/y dry bulk terminal project in the north-western part of the Russian Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga in 2024, according to a Prime Business report, citing the National Transportation Co. CEO Denis Ilatovsky.
National Transportation Co. is a joint venture company established by EuroChem and SUEK at the end of 2020, with more than 50,000 cargo railcars and six Russian seaports under its control (GM Jan. 22, p. 32). EuroChem Group’s owner, Russian businessman Andrey Melnichenko, is also SUEK’s principal owner.
The Ust-Luga transhipment terminal is to be developed in three phases, according to a report last year by Russia’s AK&M Information Agency, citing the St. Petersburg branch of Russia’s Main State Expert Appraisal Department (GM June 19, 2020). That report put the final handling capacity at 6.025 million mt/y
EuroChem revealed in June 2019 that it had decided to go ahead with the building of the transhipment terminal in Ust-Luga, a project halted in 2017 (GM June 14, 2019). At the time, the fertilizer group anticipated a 2022-23 launch of the new terminal.
Since then, the fertilizer group has declined to comment directly on the project. But, according to this week’s Prime Business report, EuroChem’s board approved the start of work on the Ust-Luga terminal project last September.
In June 2020, the St. Petersburg branch of Russia’s Main State Expert Appraisal Department approved the project’s design and estimates (GM June 19, 2020).
Potash from EuroChem’s Usolskiy potash operation, south of Berezniki, is expected to be among the group’s products handled by the new terminal once it is operational. The plans for Ust-Luga also include liquid fertilizer handling capacity, according to earlier EuroChem documents. Russia currently has no terminals for the handling of liquid fertilizers, and shipments are currently directed via the Estonian port of Sillamäe, according to the Prime Business report.