Railways Minister visits Far East's largest port

The Vostochny port is one of the most dynamically developing ports in thecountry, Railways Minister Gennady Fadeyev declared during his workingvisit to the Vostochny port (Nakhodka). Today the Railways Ministerexamined several terminals of Russia's largest port in the Far East. TheMinister visited the coal, mineral fertilizers, oil, methanol and otherterminals of the port.Moreover, the Minister, executives of the port and authorities of theport's railway station and Far Eastern Railway discussed perspectives ofmodernization of the port's railway station Nakhodka-Vostochnaya. It isplanned to construct 11 new railroads on this station and an 18-kilometerrailway from Nakhodka to the Vostochny port.Fadeyev promised to render assistance in solving the problem of mineralfertilizer transportation tariffs by railroad. High tariffs hinder exportsof this product to the Asian Pacific region. As a result, according to someexperts' estimations, the state loses some $3.5m per month.In 2002 the complex on transferring mineral fertilizers was put intooperation at the port. Its capacity is 2m-2.5m tons of fertilizer annually.By the end of this year, a terminal on transferring methanol will be putinto operation with a 1m-ton capacity per year. It is planned to increasethe coal terminal's capacity to 6m tons and the oil terminal's capacity to7m tons per year. The amount of necessary investments is $100m to $150m.The volume of the port's cargo turnover is expected to be increase by 2mtons to 14m tons this year and to 24m tons in 2006..