Volume of Goods Handled by Eastern Port in Nakhodka Rises by 33% Year on Year

The Eastern Port coal-shipping complex in Nakhodka will reach its projected capacity of 12 million tonnes of coal a year by the end of 2002. This was announced yesterday by the press office of the port's main shareholder Severstaltrans. Over the first ten months of 2002 the port handled 10,656,000 tonnes of coal, which is 34.5% higher that the figure for the same period last year (7,922,000 tonnes). In October of this year 1,284,000 of coal was processed, which is a 70% increase on last year (758,000 tonnes).

The Eastern-Urals terminal of the Eastern Port, which specializes in handling mineral fertilisers, processed 564,600 tonnes over the first ten months of the year, which is a two-fold increase on the same period last year. Severstaltrans' press office said that in the future the Eastern-Urals terminal is to be used to handle grain for export to countries in the Asia-Pacific region. One of the two lines required to handle this cargo has already been prepared. The first trial load of about 25-30 thousand tonnes of grain is expected at the end of November or beginning of December. In the future the Eastern Port will be able to handle 1,5 million tonnes of grain a year.

The total volume of goods handled by the Eastern Port> in January-October 2002 was 13,471,000 tonnes, which was 33% higher than over the same period last year. By the end of the year the volume of goods handled should top 16 million tonnes, Severstaltrans' press office said.