Bruce Barnard | Jan 20, 2011 10:25AM EST
National Container Company, Russia's biggest container stevedore, increased traffic 13 percent in 2010 to 1.3 million 20-foot equivalent units from 1.15 million TEUs in the previous year.
NCC's main assets are the First Container Terminal, the biggest terminal in the port of St. Petersburg, and Container Terminal NUTEP in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
First Quantum, a Moscow-based oil trading firm paid Fesco, the Russian container shipping and rail company, around $900 million in 2010 to acquire the 50 percent of NCC it didn't already own.
Traffic at the First Container Terminal soared 23.5 percent to 1.6 million TEUs although year-on-year growth slowed to 5.4 percent in December to just over 92,000 TEUs.
The new Logistika Terminal, which began operations in St. Petersburg in 2010, handled 18,510 TEUs.
The NUTEP terminal increased traffic a modest 3.2 percent to just under 125,000 TEUs, but December shipments crashed 31.3 percent from a year ago to 12,446 TEUs.
NCC, which is facing capacity restraints in St. Petersburg, plans to open the first phase at the nearby Ust-Luga container terminal later this year. On completion, the terminal will have an annual capacity of 3.5 million TEUs.
-- Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.