Cooperation of Tallinn port with the Chinese Ningbo port will not happen

Juhan Tere, BC, Tallinn, 18.02.2011.

Erik Laidvee, board chairman of Muuga container terminal operator Transiidikeskus AS, said that it is certain now that the cooperation between Port of Tallinn with the Chinese Ningbo port will not take place, LETA/Postimees Online reports.

According to initial plans, the Ningbo port and Transiidikeskus should have cooperated in the extension to the Muuga terminal but the Chinese lost interest due to the economic crisis. Currently Transiidikeskus and Russian firm Rail Grant are competing for the housing rights of the Muuga terminal extension. Laidvee said that the winner will be declared on March 8.

Laidvee said that it is possible to build two terminals in Muuga but the potential work volume of the two would be smallest than with just one operator. One terminal could handle 850,000 cargo containers a year, two terminals 500,000.

Laidvee said that the preparations for cooperation with the Ningbo port cost around a billion EEK or 63 mln EUR but these spending would have had to be made anyway. The terminal is half-finished and the winner of the contest has to contribute around as much for surface and infrastructure works. 19 hectares of the terminal is land reclaimed from the sea which has to sink to be sure the new buildings are stable.

The Transiidikeskus concern includes AS Muuga CT which operates a container terminal in the Muuga port, which is Estonia’s largest and deepest cargo port. The cargo turnover of the port forms three quarters of total cargo turnover of the state-owned Port of Tallinn that owns it and 90% of transit volume via Estonia.

Port of Tallinn signed a memorandum of understanding with the second largest port in China and the fourth largest in the world – the Port of Ningbo in January 2007 to launch container carriage between these two ports.

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/transport/&doc=37427