11 of September, Vladivostok. – Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (FEDC) and ROSATOM logistics integrator (Rusatom Cargo LLC) signed an agreement on cooperation in construction of the Western Transportation and Logistics Hub (WHUB). Nikolay Zapryagaev, Director General of FEDC, and Alexey Levitsky, Director General of ZTLU LLC (a subsidiary of Rusatom Cargo LLC) in attendance took place in the signing ceremony within the Eastern Economic Forum.
The Western HUB, which will be located in the town of Belokamenka in the Murmansk Region together with a similar hub in Vladivostok and a fleet of ice-class container ships, is the infrastructural backbone of the Arctic container line project titled the Eurasian Container Transit (EACT). Establishing the first regular container line aims to create a marine transit transportation service for containerized cargo shipped between Eurasia’s Eastern and Western parts via the Northern Sea Route (NSR). The Western HUB is intended to tranship cargo from/to specialised ice-class container ships and non-ice-class vessels.
“The regular container line through the Northern Sea Route will provide international traders with more flexibility and variety in their delivery route options. The Western Transportation and Logistics Hub represents an important element of the designed container line. Considering the project’s complexity and magnitude, our cooperation with Far East and Arctic Corporation is crucial to the successful launch of the key element of the future container line”, Alexey Levitsky, Director General of ZTLU LLC said.
The terminal will consist of two deep-water berths designed to accommodate vessels with a maximum capacity of 6,000 TEU. It will be equipped with state-of-the-art, high-performance handling technology. The Western HUB is expected to have an annual throughput capacity of about 10 million tons of cargo.
According to Nikolay Zapryagaev, Director General of FEDC, “It is impossible to develop the Russian Arctic and the Northern Sea Route without building new-generation transhipment ports that take marine ecosystem preservation into account. A wide range of issues, from economic to environmental, will be resolved by the Western Hub project, which aims to tranship cargo from ice-class container ships to conventional commercial vessels and vice versa. FEDC will assist ROSATOM logistics integrator in the project’s implementation, from working through infrastructure support to establishing effective communications with development institutions and other potential partners.”
ROSATOM State Corporation has been the infrastructure operator of the Northern Sea Route since 2018, ensuring safe and smooth operation of this transportation route. ROSATOM has been developing its logistics business, which includes the Eurasian Container Transit project.
Russian Far East and Arctic Development Corporation JSC (FEDC) is a federal development institute, created by the government of Russian Federation in 2015 in order to promote and facilitate investment in the Russian Far East and Arctic in all of the economic, business and social areas. FEDC is a management company of preferential regimes: Arсtic Zone of the Russian Federation (AZRF), Advanced Special Economic Zones (ASEZ) and Free Port of Vladivostok (FPV) in the Far Eastern and Arctic regions of Russia, as well as Special Administrative Regime (SAR) at the Russky island. Also FEDC supervises realization of social development programs and initiatives for improving quality of people’s life in the Far East and Arctic – Hectar Program, subsidized Far Eastern Mortgage, Far Eastern and Arctic Draft, Muravyov-Amursky 2030 Educational Initiative and others.
