RF President Vladimir Putin has given start to coal loading from the new terminal of Lavna on the western shore of Kola Bay via videocon, the Kremlin press office reports.
‘Launching the terminal will be a good contribution to the expansion of our Arctic seaports’ handling capacity, in creating additional opportunities for coal mining industry’, the President said during the ceremony.
He added that the coal to be loaded was mined in Kuzbass, so the new facility will help diversify export logistics for Kuzbass coal.
‘Today, Russia is strengthening its sovereignty creating new points of growth for economy and trade, forming efficient transportation corridors, actively developing the Northern Sea Route, the entire global route from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok via the Arctic,’ the Kremlin press office quotes Vladimir Putin as saying.
‘The port of Murmansk is one of the key points on this important route. We will definitely continue expanding its capacity, no less than thrice in the coming years, and in a longer term we need to reach larger figures. We will do this by building new terminals, state of the art port infrastructure, and by expanding short- and long-distance railway approaches. All these plans should be closely linked to the development of the Arctic and the Northern Sea Route, to ensure the growth of throughput of not only Russian but also foreign cargoes, with the development of the domestic shipbuilding industry’, the President said.
Lavna Terminal is located on the western shore of Kola Bay within the boundaries of Murmansk seaport, and is part of the Murmansk transport hub development project.
The terminal capacity is 18 mn tons of coal per annum.
Photo: Sergey Karpukhin / TASS via Kremlin press office