NTK terminal in Vanino to expand by third to 33 mln tpy by year's end

VANINO, Khabarovsk Territory. Sept 15 (Interfax) - JSC Daltransugol (DTU), a coal terminal at the Vanino port run by National Transport Company (NTK) will expand its handing capacity to 33 million tonnes per year "by the end of November" 2023 from the current 24 million tonnes, DTU executive director Vladimir Dolgopolov told reporters.

It was reported earlier that DTU is carrying out a project to expand the terminal's capacity to 40 million tonnes per year by 2026.

The company now estimates that the "final amount of investment in the project to increase the terminal's capacity to 40 million tonnes per year will total 24 billion rubles," Dolgopolov said, adding that 7.2 billion rubles has already been invested.

The terminal is expected to handle 18 million tonnes of coal in 2023, 1 million tonnes more than in 2022, he said.

He said the geography of coal exports through the terminal has "narrowed" somewhat and coal is now shipped primarily to China, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, with almost half going to China.

DTU, one of the largest coal terminals in Russia by cargo traffic, is located in the deep water Muchka Bay in Khabarovsk Territory and has access to two mainline railways, the Trans-Siberian Railway and Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM). The terminal, built in 2008, is intended to ship SUEK coal to customers in China, South Korea and Taiwan.

NTK, which consolidates the transport assets of EuroChem and SUEK, has more than 51,100 gondola cars and 4,200 mineral hoppers, as well as a freight car repair depot in Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol Territory. NTK also has five operating marine terminals, including two in Murmansk, two in Russia's Far East (in Vanino and in Nakhodka, Primorye) and one in Tuapse, Krasnodar Territory.