EuroChem may abandon the construction of the terminal in Ust-Luga seaport

EuroChem will abandon the project to build a bulk terminal for the shipment of mineral fertilizers in the port of Ust-Luga (Leningrad Region) if the State Duma will not allow placing warehouses on the coastal strip, said Igor Nechaev, General Director of EuroChem.

The company planned to begin the construction of the terminal in 2022 and its designed capacity should be 6 million tons of mineral fertilizers per year.

According to Igor Nechaev’s statement, the construction of the terminal in Ust-Luga makes no sense if there is no possibility of convenient transshipment of mineral fertilizers from warehouses to ships. To provide this, warehouses should be located near the coastline, which is currently prohibited by Article 65 of the Water Code of Russia. According to the current standard, they could be placed no closer than 500 meters.

The draft law, which will reverse a ban on the storage of agrochemicals within the boundaries of water protection zones in the territories of seaports, hasn’t passed the third reading in the State Duma. The repeated third reading is scheduled for September. If the ban isn’t canceled, EuroChem will continue to transship its products in the ports of the Baltic states, where there are no such restrictions.

“We are transshipping our products and will continue to transship. There are no restrictions for this,” said Igor Nechaev.

Source: 47news