MURMANSK, December 8. /TASS/. The new cranes at the Nornickel’s Murmansk transport branch (MTB) will be serving bigger amounts of the company’s products. The cranes of the kind have not been used in the Arctic, MTB told TASS on Friday.

"With the new cranes, the cargo handling would grow to 1.3 million tonnes," MTB said, adding in 2016 the cargo handling was at 1.2 million tonnes, and the company expects similar results in the current year.

Two new pneumatic cranes, made in Germany, cost 200 million rubles ($3.3 million). They can pile up containers in six rows instead of four, thus MTB would be able to handle more cargo.

The cranes are of the "Northern version," Nornickel’s branch said, explaining they may work in the temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees. This is the only equipment of the kind, working in the Arctic. The company hopes with the new cranes it would be able to increase the cargo handling amounts and to cut the expenses and impact on the environment, as the cranes work on electricity.

The Murmansk Transport Branch transships feinstein (an intermediate product of nickel refining) produced at Nornickel’s Polar branch, on its way to the Murmansk Region for further processing at the Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company, and also sends the company’s final products to European countries. The Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company is a leading production complex in the Murmansk Region - a major producer of non-ferrous metals, including strategic metals. The company is the world’s biggest nickel refining enterprise and Russia’s only producer of electrolytic cobalt of highest grades. Kola MMC produces 39% of nickel and 42% of cobalt the Norilsk Nickel Company produces. The products are supplied to the domestic market and exported to European countries.