Sukhodol Seaport in Russian Far East aims to handle up to 12 mln tonnes of coal in 2025 - CEO

VLADIVOSTOK. Oct 4 (Interfax) - The Sukhodol Seaport in Primorye plans to handle about 3 million tonnes of coal for export this year and then ramp up the figure to 9 million-12 million tonnes in 2025, port CEO Sergei Kropotov told Interfax.

The port has design capacity to handle 12 million tonnes of coal per year, he said.

"The whole process part has been fully launched, so we're ready to receive about 1 million-1.2 million tonnes monthly. Right now we're operating in the regime and according to the method determined for us by the scale of coal shipments to the port. This year, with the launch and hot testing, we'll handle about 3 million tonnes of coal. Next year our plan, taking into account the method, is a minimum of 9 million tonnes and maximum of 12 million tonnes," Kropotov said.

The port is currently handling coal primarily from the Kuznetsk Basin. "Be we have now begun to very actively work on attracting coal producers, both small and medium, including from Yakutia," he said.

The port also plans to start handling containers at the beginning of 2025 after receiving two Liebherr 420 cranes.

"We're supposed to receive two cranes by the start of 2025 that will make it possible to work with containers from ships. They're now being shipped. Take two months for arrival, plus maintenance, so we expect that with the New Year we'll already begin to work full-scale," Kropotov said.

"Initially we're anticipating around 5,000-7,000 TEU per month. For further growth we need to prepare areas and equipment for container services. In 2025, we plan to handle about 15,000 TEU per month," he said.

It was reported earlier that Sukhodol, which previously focused only on exports, began handling imports on Thursday. The first import cargo to arrive at the port was cars from China.