On July 20, Delo Group put into operation a new deepwater berth No.40A at its grain KSK terminal in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. The 309 m long berth has a total area of almost 7,700 sq. m. During the construction, the most modern technologies were used to increase economic efficiency and safety, the company said in a statement.
The berth was built as part of a major investment project “Reconstruction of KSK Grain Terminal”, the cost of the work amounted to about $68 mn of the Group’s own funds. As of the end of 2020 and during the first half of this year, the KSK terminal ranked the second in Russia in terms of grain handling volumes.
The depth at the berth was dredged to make 16.9 m, which makes it the deepest in the Azov and Black Sea basin. This allows of accommodating vessels of up to 100,000 dwt and with a maximum draft up to 14.4 m. Prior to this, KSK Terminal was able to handle grain carriers with a maximum capacity of up to 50,000 tons. With the new berth, the annual capacity of KSK has increased to 7 mn tons.
The opening ceremony was attended by Oksana Lut, RF Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Konstantin Anisimov, Deputy Head of the RF federal Agency for maritime and River Transport (Rosmorrechflot), representatives of federal and regional authorities, the second shareholder of KSK Cargill, business circles, , and major customers of the terminal.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Sergey Shishkarev, the head and owner of Delo Group, noted: ‘Today we are not just opening a new modern port infrastructure facility. We mark the completion of a major comprehensive investment project launched in 2015 for the reconstruction of the NUTEP and KSK terminals. The total volume of investments made by the Group in this project amounted to USD 335 million of its own funds alone, without attracting government investments’.
‘Nevertheless, all our investment projects are always calculated taking into account the implementation of the strategic objectives of the state and national projects. The development of logistics for Russian agricultural exports will strengthen the role of Russia in the world grain market, open new sales markets for Russian farmers in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The group has always associated itself with the economic system of our country, its principle is “Developing with the economy, developing for the economy.’
According to Oksana Lut, about 90% of domestic grain exports go by sea, mostly through the Azov and Black Sea ports. Taking this into account, Novorossiysk remains one of the most important transport arteries as in the past season, a third of the total grain export was handled via the port, with the share of the KSK terminal exceeding 10%.
As the Deputy Minister noted, the agricultural sector expectd to increase grain production every year. The long-term strategy for the development of the grain complex assumes a significant increase in the harvest in the next 10 years. ‘Projects like this are very important from the point of view of further increasing exports and improving transport accessibility,’ Oksana Lut said.
During the festive event, a symbolic launch for loading grain on board the first vessel that moored at the new berth, the 63, 500 “Belfuji” bulk carrier was given.