NCSP, Metalloinvest sign contract to load 4 mln tonnes of iron ore products in 2012
MOSCOW. March 14 (Interfax) - OJSC Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP) has signed a contract with the Metalloinvest group to load 4 million tonnes of iron ore products in 2012, the NCSP group said in its development strategy to 2020.
An NCSP spokesman told Interfax that this is the first such contract with Metalloinvest, the largest iron ore producer in Russia and the CIS. Metalloinvest previously moved this volume through Ukrainian ports. However, dredging at the terminal in Novorossiysk enable the port last November to load the first shipment of iron ore products from Metalloinvest's Lebedinsky GOK onto a bulk carrier with capacity of 114,500 tonnes, for export to China.
"The ability to load bulk carriers of such size at the Novorossiysk port gives Russian iron ore concentrate producers an alternative to loading this type of cargo through Ukrainian ports," NCSP executive director Yury Matviyenko said.
NCSP is considering expanding this business. Under its strategy to 2020, the company plans to expand handling of iron ore products by 12 million tonnes (NCSP handled 2.9 million tonnes in 2011) with the construction of a new terminal at a cost of $250 million-$290 million. If the project is approved, it will be carried out in 2015-2016.
Metalloinvest shipped 12.8 million tonnes of commercial iron ore and 13.6 million tonnes of pellets, as well as 2.3 million tonnes of hot-briquetted iron to outside customers in 2011. The group exported nearly 70% of the iron ore products it produced, with half going to China and 35% to Europe. NCSP said that 95% of Metalloinvest's exports in the Azov-Black Sea basin in the first nine months of 2011 went through Ukrainian ports.
The Metalloinvest group includes iron ore producers Mikhailovsky GOK and Lebedinsky GOK, the Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant (OEMK) and Urals Steel.