ARKHANGELSK, May 25. /TASS/. Investments in the construction of the Arkhangelsk deepwater port in north Russia will amount to 151 billion rubles ($2.7 billion), CEO of the Arkhangelsk Arctic Transportation and Industrial Hub Sergei Kokin said on Friday.
“Expenditures will total 151 billion rubles in the prices of the corresponding years. The following ratio of private and budget investments is expected: 27 billion rubles ($475 million) of budget investments and 124 billion rubles ($2.2 billion) of private funds in the prices of the corresponding years,” Kokin said at a session of the Presidium of the Council on the Arctic and the Antarctic under Russia’s Federation Council. The session was devoted to the topic: “The Construction of the Belkomur Rail Mainline as a Key Project of Creating Backbone Infrastructure for Developing the Arctic and the Territories of the Russian North.”
As Kokin explained, this is a classical form of interaction in the implementation of port projects. The project is planned to be implemented in two stages. The first stage envisages building the basic port infrastructure in 2018-2022, given that a concession agreement is signed with the prospective investor. Capital expenditures at the first stage will amount to 124.8 billion rubles ($2.2 billion).
Arkhangelsk deepwater port
The project of building the Arkhangelsk deepwater port is included in Russia’s transport strategy through 2030. The project’s developers believe that the new port will allow developing a more attractive alternative route for export and import cargo flows towards Europe, North America and countries of the Asia-Pacific region (first of all, China), and also providing a new independent gateway for large-tonnage vessels to the World Ocean in these directions.
The intended investor is China’s Poly International Holding Co., Ltd, which is part of Poly Group. The construction of the Arkhangelsk deepwater port is closely linked with the project of building the Belkomur rail mainline.
Belkomur project
The Belkomur project is a new railway route, which will connect industrially developed regions in Siberia and the Urals with ports in Russia’s North and North-West. The project will add to effective development of the Arctic projects and will form the
international railway route across Russia between Russia’s European North and China, thus cutting by 800km the transportation distance for deliveries from Siberia and the Urals.
At the regional level, the Belkomur project will boost the industrial and social-economic development in Komi, Perm, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk and other adjusting areas. As the route is implemented, another 39 investment projects will develop further the North-Western part of Russia, attracting more than 720 billion rubles (almost $13 billion) in private investments, and offering 28,000 new jobs. The new railway’s annual capacity will be 35 million tonnes.
Coal, mineral fertilizers, oil, timber, ores, construction materials, containers will be taken to the backbone ports of the Northern Sea Routes: to the ports of Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Belomorsk, and later on also to Sabetta. The extra-budgetary funding of the railway construction will exceed 260 billion rubles ($4.5 billion). As the exploitation term (26 years) expires, the Belkomur railway will be transferred for further use to the Russian Federation.
The project’s investor, China’s Poly International Holding Co., Ltd, is ready to invest up to $5.5 billion.