"Сумма" выгружается в Китай
Information that today, during the Premier of the PRC Li Keqiang’s visit to Russia, Summa Group and the administration of the Chinese province of Jilin plan to sign an agreement to build a “dry port” in Hunchun, Kommersant learned from a source familiar with the program of the Chinese Premier’s visit. According to him, over the weekend, Summa had already held talks about this project in Hunchun with the provincial governor Jiang Chaoliang. Kommersant’s source says the agreement involves the transfer to Summa, under a 50-year lease agreement, 310 hectares of land, on which the company will build the infrastructure for a logistics center with cargo handling capacity up to 40 million tons annually.
When questioned by Kommersant, representatives of Summa confirmed the planned signing. At the Group, they explained that in the city of Hunchun there will be created a satellite logistics center of the Big Port Zarubino, which Summa is developing in the Primorsky Territory. The company estimates that total investments into the creation of the center will be around $300-350 million. The “dry port” will handle loads that are delivered by rail – in Hunchun the cargoes will be sorted and prepared for delivery by ships. In addition, at Summa they hope that Chinese goods will be able to pass all customs procedures while still in the “dry port”. The company hopes that by moving auxiliary operations to Hunchun, they will achieve “increased transshipment speeds and improve the overall efficiency of logistics.” Using the “dry port”, Summa also wants to solve the problem of different gauge width in Russia and China. Chinese goods will travel from Hunchun to Zarubino already on the Russian railway branch line, the capacity of which exceeds 10 million tons. However, at Summa, they noted that this is a single-line track, which has not been electrified yet, and thus the logistics center project will have to modernize this branch line.
Summa expects to launch the Big Port Zarubino in Troitsy Bay, 18 km from the border with China, in 2018. The cargo base should be formed largely by Chinese goods, including goods travelling from the northeastern to southern provinces of China. Sources told Kommersant that eventually Chinese cargoes may account for 60% of the total turnover of the port. At the first stage, this should be 60 million tons per year, and later it may increase to 100 million tons. Zarubino should also get a grain terminal with 10 million tons capacity in the first phase, which should be built by the United Grain Company (50% minus 1 share owned by Summa), a container terminal with capacity of up to 2 million TEU per year, a general cargo terminal (25 million tons), handling of Ro-Ro freight and an alumina terminal. Total investments into the project, including the “dry port”, could reach $2.6-3 billion.
Head of the Infoline-Analitika Agency Mikhail Burmistrov agrees that the construction of a “dry port” in China is justified, in terms of logistics and facilitating the formation of shiploadsfor the port. “However, in realizing this project in China, Summa can count on being able to attract Chinese credits for the construction of a port, which is an interesting option, given the rising interest rates in the Russian Federation,” the expert adds. In addition, for Summa, being located in the PRC, it will be easier to negotiate with Chinese shippers.