New Russian deepwater port

Bronka Port, a new deepwater port located about 60 km west of St. Peters­burg, will allow to solve the problem of port capacity deficiency in the north-western region of the Russian Federation, to reduce the load on the road network of St. Petersburg
The new deepwater port of Bronka on the outskirts of St. Petersburg on the southern bank of the Gulf of[ds_preview] Finland is being built near the municipality of Lomonossov. When fully operational, the multi-functional handling facility comprises terminals for handling containers and RoRo cargo, along with a logistics centre for packing and warehousing services. Covering a total of 107 ha, the container terminal offers five berths on quays extending for 1,220m. With a quay length of 630m sufficient to permit handling of three vessels simultaneously, the RoRo terminal covers 57 hectares. On completion of the first stage of construction, the annual handling capacity will total 1.45mill. TEU per year at the container terminal and 260,000 units at the RoRo terminal. »Our aim is to reach about 2mill. TEU per year,« says Dmitry Mikhalchenko, Managing Director of the Port of Bronka.

The first stage of construction of the new multi-functional port will have a maximum depth of 14,40m to handle post panamax vessels of up to 6,500TEU. These vessels will also be able to reach the port safely in the winter months via the recently constructed canal linking it to the sea. With start of operations in September 2015, the port initially will only have a water depth of 11.20m because the deepening of the canal link will not have been fully completed at that stage. »This is the main reason why the official opening will be in November,« says Mikhalchenko. In a second stage it is planned to deepen the port to 16m so that container vessels with a capacity of up to 8,100TEU are able to berth.

The new Russian port is open to all carriers and not dedicated to any particular one and any shipping line may define their own way of cargo handling. The first customer that will call at the new container terminal will be the shipping company CMA CGM. From September on the French will expand one of four of their Baltic services.

The first 210m of the RoRo quay will be opened in September as well. The terminal has a 36m long storey ramp on which the cargo can be brought on board the ships. In a second step, two hydraulically powered ramps could be installed and the terminal will get a dedicated gate including a scanner. The planned commissioning of the entire terminal is scheduled for the end of 2017. Currently there are running discussions with potential customers, says Alexey Shukletsov, also Managing Director of the Port of Bronka. These could be companies that have RoRo, ConRo or RoPax vessels as well as car carriers.

Bronka aims to transport 30% of the cargo volume by rail. In the first step 475,000TEU will be carried by rail. Two tracks with a length of 550m each will be built. Later, in the second, step up to four railtracks with a length of 1,050m could be added south of the terminal. The rails will be operated with diesel traction. »But we plan to electrify it,« says Mikhalchenko, who indirectly confirmed that a big German technology company would verge of a comprehensive contract with a value of about 50mill. € to build a railway substation.

Around 400mill. € have been invested so far in building the new port. »Bronka is a public-private-partnership project, with an inflow of public funds in addition to private sector funds. We are not concentrating solely on handling seaborne containerized and RoRo cargo, but also see excellent opportunities for development in establishing logistics services that generate added value in the purpose-built logistics zone located close to the Port of St. Petersburg,« says Mikhalchenko. He and Shukletsov are convinced that the port with its very good nautical accessibility, rapid and efficient handling of imports and exports, and its high-performance hinterland road and rail links will produce significant relief for St. Petersburg as Russia’s largest Baltic port. »Another advantage of Bronka is that it has two more hours in the tide window in comparison to the Port of St. Petersburg, so shipping companies are more flexible here,« says Mikhalchenko.

New Port facilities

At the first stage the container terminal is equipped with four ship-to-shore (STS) container cranes of the crane manufacturer Liebherr with a capacity of 65t each. The cranes have a span of 51m to reach vessels with up to 18 rows of containers. They are suitable for twinlift and tandem lift operations. The cranes have been delivered to the port in August. One month before Bronka took delivery of a mobile harbour crane LHM 800 that is designed for challenging tasks providing a lift capacity of more than 300t and an outreach of 64m.

The first three out of ten RTG cranes of the Finnish company Konecranes have been transported in mid-June on board the »Meri«, owned by the shipping company Mediaura. It was the first vessel that berthed at the quay of the new Russian deepwater port. As part of a second delivery, three more RTG cranes arrived at Bronka in August.

Terberg got a contract to supply one »Terberg RT 403« truck with a liftig capacity of 45t and traction up to 400t and five »Terberg YT 223« trucks with a lifting capacity of 35t and traction up to 150t each. Five »Novatech« gooseneck trailers have been ordered as well. The equipment has been delivered this summer. Further parts of the equipment are a reachstacker/railstacker for all rail operations with an additional hook traverse with a capacity of SWL 45t, one RoRo tugmaster and five forklift trucks with a forklift between 33 and 4t.

Mikhalchenko and Shukletsov see excellent development prospects for Bronka. The facility is located at the gates of St. Petersburg, easily accessible by sea. The sea channel has a length of 13km and the pilotage will take 1 hour. To reach the historical part of St. Petersburg the pilotage takes 2.5 hours for the 25km sea channel. According to Shukletsov, the port of Ust Luga, located about 140km west of Bronka, is not so attractive for shipping companies because it is too far away from the main centres around the Moscow region. To transport a container from Ust Luga to Moscow would cost about 150$ more than from Bronka, explains the port manager, who expects a redistribution of the flow of goods.

Futhermore in Bronka cargo will also be optimally linked to the Russian hinterland by direct high-performance road and rail links, says Mikhalchenko. If the goods turnover in the Baltic Sea region will rise to 4.5 or 5mill. TEU a year, the two managers see good chances for Bronka to develop into a logistic hub. Last year 3.5mill. TEU have been handled in the Baltic Sea region, 2.5mill. TEU of which in Russian ports. But in the first months of 2015, the cargo volume in Russian ports has declined about 20%. The main reason is declining imports due to the EU sanctions.

According to Mikhalchenko and Shukletsov the decision to develop a new Russian deepwater port has been taken in 2009. Dutch company Royal Boskalis Westminster N. V. was commissioned with dredging and construction of the shipping canal’s first phase. The project involved the construction of a 6km shipping cannal, turning basin and berth pockets for the new port facility. A total volume of 16mill. m3 of clay, silt and sand have been dredged using a wide range of equipment including medium-sized trailing suction hopper dredgers, cutter suction dredgers and backhoe dredgers. According to the company the total value of the project has been approximately 130mill. €.

China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) have performed the second phase of dredging the approach canal and berthing area. Approximately 13mill. m3 of material had to be removed. Most of the 20 units of the CCCC fleet have been involved in the works.