HOME Regions Primorsky Krai 30.07.2014

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Borders without locks

Primorye relies on the development of ports

The Primorsky Territory was covered by a wave of port modernization. Due to the lack of obvious strategic resource reserves, Primorye has embarked on the development of the transport and logistics component and cross-border cooperation. It is assumed that several large-scale projects will be implemented in the region at once. All of them affect the development of ports - in Vladivostok, Zarubino, Posiet.

22 July Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on changing the boundaries of the port Posiet in Primorye, within which state regulation of activities in the port. This decision was made in connection with the increasing number of vessel calls of large-capacity vessels, the government said.

In particular, “the area of the water area No. 2, adjacent to the sea terminal“ Slavyanka ”, has been enlarged. As a result of increasing the boundaries of the water area, it will be possible to service vessels up to 400 meters in length and up to 17 meters in draft. The creation of an anchorage for large-tonnage vessels will make it possible to service such vessels in the roads without being moored. In addition, an increase in the port's water area will allow the creation of additional offshore transshipment complexes, which will contribute to the development of the port and the region as a whole, ”the press service added. In turn, this will increase the income of the Far Eastern region and will help to increase the competitiveness of Russian seaports in the Far East.

Meanwhile, at present, the owner of the port of Posiet, the company Mechel, is on the verge of bankruptcy. The company's net debt in April 2014 amounted to $ 8,3 billion, while 68% of debt accounted for Russian banks, 25% for foreign financial institutions, 7% for bonds in free circulation. One of the largest lenders is VTB.

In June, the creditors of the metallurgical company discussed the option of rescuing Mechel with the participation of VEB and the Central Bank. However, in early July, the head of VEB, Vladimir Dmitriev, said that none of the schemes that were offered by the company and the creditor banks were not satisfied with Vnesheconombank and he was not going to participate in the restructuring of the debts of the metallurgical company.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov believes that the bankruptcy of Mechel can be considered as one of the options for restructuring the company. Denis Manturov, Minister of Industry and Trade, said that foreign investors could be involved in the rescue of a metallurgical company. According to him, the government set the task for the company’s leadership to find partners in Southeast Asia.

However while foreign investors are ready to develop other coastal territories. In particular, China proposed creating a logistic center on its border territory for the development of the port of Zarubino (Trinity Bay) in Primorye. This was said during the negotiations of the head of the Minsk region Alexander Galushka with the governor of the Chinese province of Jilin Bain Chaolu on the issues of interaction in various projects in the Far East. The governor of Jilin Province said that China is interested in one of the largest projects in the Far East - the construction of the port of Zarubino. This project is of great importance both for the Russian Far East and for northeastern China, in particular for the province of Jilin, according to the official website of the Ministry of Regional Development.

"The construction of the port is the adjustment of foreign economic relations and the increase in trade turnover," Bain Ciaolu stressed.

The Ministry of Development and Development supports the intentions of the Chinese side, believing that this will have a positive effect on the economy of the coastal port. “We consider the development of this infrastructure facility to be important, in our plans - the creation of one of the TOR in the port of Zarubino,” A. Galushka stated during the negotiations. He also recalled that the Primorye-2 project is planned to be implemented in the port area (the project of the international transport corridor, developed as early as 1990, provides for the transit of goods produced in the northeastern provinces of China through the ports of Khasansky district ).

Plans for the development of the port of Zarubino are also in the "Sum" group. The company's Chinese partners (which plan to build four port terminals - grain, container, general and bulk cargo) said that they can handle large volumes and the group announced its readiness to increase the port's capacity to 100 million tons per year. The port of Zarubino will become an alternative to the delivery of goods by rail to the Chinese port of Dalian.

The Summa Group has already agreed with three companies on the transshipment of about 17 million tons of cargo, the press service of the Primorye Administration reported. These are the grain company of Jilin province (10 million tons of cargo per year), Hyundai (with the Handa company - for transshipment of 5 million tons with a possible increase in volumes up to 40 million tons by 2025) and the Volkswagen assembly plant, the Changchong Automobile Plant (import up to 1 million cars and 40 thousand TEU of auto parts per year). In addition to these contracts, the group in June signed agreements with the Heilongjiang Grain Company for transshipment of 10 million tons per year through Zarubino and with Rusal for the transshipment of 2 million tons of imported alumina, and several more agreements are being prepared.

According to a preliminary assessment of the group itself, an increase in capacity will entail a growth in investment in the project - from $ 1 billion to $ 3 billion in private and public investment. Recall, United Grain Company OJSC (UGC) and FESCO signed an agreement to build a terminal in Troitsa Bay in Primorye. The project will be implemented on the basis of public-private partnership. The volume of private investment will amount to 290 million dollars.

The equally ambitious project is planned to be implemented by the shareholders of the Vladivostok Sea Fishing Port (OJSC VMPP). The stevedore company, which in 1980-xs transshipped up to 1,5 million tons of fish products per year, intends to regain the role of the main Far Eastern fish hub. The existing infrastructure allows sending to the regions of Russia more than 10 thousand tons of fresh-frozen fish products per month. In addition, three "dry" accelerated container trains are sent weekly. In the company's plans, further development and access to the daily dispatch of the container train is either "dry" or refrigerated. That network of fish cargoes will reach the capital for 8-9 days, and not for 20-30 days compared to traditional reflexions.

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In addition, OJSC "VMPP" is developing a large-scale investment project to modernize the infrastructure for transshipment and storage of fish products in Vladivostok. The company has already sent to Rosrybolovstvo an application for the inclusion of an investment project for 1,5 billion rubles in the draft Federal target program "Increasing the efficiency of use and development of the resource potential of the Russian Federation fisheries complex in 2015-2020 and for the period up to 2023."

The project envisages the construction of new refrigeration and storage facilities in the territory of the sea terminal of OJSC Vladivostok Sea Fishing Port and in the territory of the operating rear terminal in the area of the junction railway station Ugolnaya. It is assumed that the project will be implemented in two stages. At the first stage, the capacity of OJSC VMPP for transshipment of fish products will increase to 360 thousand tons by the 2016 year and to 500 thousand tons by the 2020 year. At the second stage, a wholesale distribution center will be created to ensure an uninterrupted supply of industrial enterprises with food raw materials for the production of fish products with a deep degree of processing with an annual volume of 20 thousand tons.

Experts believe that all seaside port modernization business projects are very viable and relevant. The main thing that they use is the obvious advantageous geopolitical position of the region. In addition, they all rely on one or another state interest. According to the director of the Institute of International Business and Economics of VSUES, Doctor of Economics, Professor Alexander Latkin, under such circumstances, investors are unlikely to be scared off even by the bankruptcy of some enterprises.

"The location of the port of Posiet is beneficial from the point of view of cooperation with China, there are companies that are ready to invest in it. I do not think that the decision of the government of the Russian Federation was reckless, despite the "suspended" position of Mechel. If the company goes bankrupt, the port will simply find a new owner, "the source said.

Primorye, of course, should take advantage of its geographical position, the possibility of including in the logistics schemes of Northeast Asia, take an active part in the export activities of the entire Far Eastern Federal District, said political analyst Alexander Zykov. However, he adds, a prerequisite for the successful development of such cooperation should be the development of the region’s own interests. “Such cooperation should allow the region to develop an independent competitive economy, to revive interest in the development of its own production,” the political scientist said. As a result, the region should not become just a transit point serving the interests of the parties, it should develop harmoniously, taking into account its own interest for the future.

In this regard, the project of the Vladivostok port workers, aimed at upgrading the specialized refrigeration and storage infrastructure for transshipment and storage of fish products and the creation of an interregional wholesale distribution center in order to develop the production of fish products, analysts consider most to meet the interests of the region. According to the experts of the seminal publication Gudok, OJSC “VMPP” seized a promising trend - the transition from the transportation of fish products by refsection to the transportation of fish products by refrigerated containers. If five or six years ago 10-15% of fish products from Far Eastern ports were transported in refrigerated containers, now it is 60-70%. It is obvious that the shareholders of OJSC “VSMP”, having successfully debugged the technologies of container transportation, gained a strong competitive advantage in the field of fish logistics.

"So far this is only a paper written on paper. It is not known how OAO Dalcomkholod and Dalrybport LLC behave, which are direct and quite strong competitors of OJSC VMPP, and have long established their clients in the fish market. It is unlikely that they will easily give up the market with the volume of revenue of 4 billion rubles per year (services for transshipment of fish products in the ports of Primorye are estimated at 700-800 million rubles per year, fish products storage services - 200-300 million rubles a year, transportation of fish products from the ports of Primorsky the region to the European regions of Russia - almost 3 billion rubles), "says Natalia Sycheva, head of the Open Sector project. She noted that in the current version of the state program, which, most likely, will be proposed for approval, the project of seaports does not exist. In addition, she added, today there is a process of inventorying all property that is under the jurisdiction of FSUE "Natzrybresursy" (they own quay walls of the port), lease contracts are also being revised. "It is already known that the state intends to review the content of the contracts, change the rental rate in order to use state property more effectively. After all, according to the results of the audit of the Accounting Chamber (2012 year), it was revealed that porters (operators) receive super-incomes and do not invest anything to keep the property in proper condition, "the interlocutor said. Considering this, she believes, the project of the WVMP may remain a project, because it is designed for other economic realities.

What will become the core of the future of cross-border cooperation and will serve as an impetus for the independent development of the region, is not yet determined. Currently, the State Duma of the Russian Federation is considering a draft federal law on cross-border cooperation in the Russian Federation, which for the first time refers to the implementation of cross-border cooperation in addressing issues of local importance to the powers of local self-government bodies of border municipalities. It is assumed that through the creation of transboundary regions and agglomerations, through the organization of effective transboundary movement of people and goods, an accelerated solution of the economic and social problems of the regions is possible.

Text: Xenia Pisareva