Tallinn port postpones plans for a new terminal

  • 2008-04-09
  • Staff and wire reports

ALL ABOARD: Rising passenger numbers, particularly on the Stockholm route, are the one thing Tallinn port bosses can smile about.

TALLINN - The board of Tallinna Sadam (Port of Tallinn) announced it has postponed naming a winner of a tender for the construction of a new container terminal in the Muuga harbor in the latest sign that hard times have impacted the port's operations.
Neinar Seli, chairman of the supervisory board of Tallinna Sadam, told the Baltic News Service that work on the tender had not proceeded according to plan and that the supervisory board first wanted to discuss the port's strategy for the next few years.

It was the second time the port had failed to announce a winner for extending the eastern part of the Muuga port to accommodate a container terminal.
Seli said that a final decision would be made in May.
The Port of Tallinn is hoping that a major Chinese goods distribution center in Muuga will revive its fortunes, which underwent a serious fall after the Tallinn riots last April caused many Russian exporters to divert shipments to other ports in the region.
Container terminals are regarded as a crucial segment for ports' future profitability, as they are a growing market and allow port operators significant added-value. The Klaipeda Port in Lithuania currently leads in container handling in the Baltics.

According to the Port of Tallinn's plans, the proposed container terminal will require an additional two kilometers of wharves. The terminal, which will be built in conjunction with China's Ningbo port, will have an area of 100 hectares and could receive ships carrying up to 8,000 containers.
Early in April the port announced that it had handled more the 3 million tons of goods in March, down a third from a year ago, when it handled a record 4 million tons.
While the March result was better than February and January, the numbers still showed that the port is facing difficult times. Liquid freight, mainly oil, was down 16 percent, while fertilizer handling fell 59 percent. Coal handling all but ceased, plummeting 97 percent year-on-year.

Speaking April 4, Seli expressed hope that coal would return to Tallinn's port. He said that the amount of coal piled up in Russia and Kazakhstan waiting to be exported had jumped dramatically, and that higher coal prices were forcing owners to find ways to deliver to the markets.
Seli said the future plans of the coal terminal could become clearer at the end of this month when executives of the port take part in the Transrussia transport fair in Moscow.
On the bright side, passenger turnover in Tallinn has increased, rising 20 percent and reaching 1.3 million over the first quarter. On the Tallinn-Helsinki route the number of passengers was 18 percent higher, to 1.1 million, while those taking the Tallinn-Stockholm route were 37 percent more than a year ago.
A total of 1,256 passenger ships and 561 freight vessels called at the Port of Tallinn during the three months.