OREANDA-NEWS. November 28, 2011. The border / customs control point located at Ust-Luga Container Terminal (ULCT, member of National Container Company, NCC Group) has been certified by an interdepartmental commission, the Group said.

The commission signed the certificate of compliance of the marine permanent border crossing point to implement border, customs and other controls.

Now, Russian Border Services Agency (Rosgranitsa) will issue an order to complete commissioning of the checkpoint.

Rosmorport was the Customer-developer of the checkpoint project, funded through the federal budget. The facility’s second phase construction was implemented through private investment of NCC and Eurogate.

Ust-Luga Container Terminal is Russia's first deep-water container terminal capable of handling 6,000 teu boxships. The facility projected capacity is 440,000 TEUs, expandable to 2.85 million TEUs. The terminal commissioning will facilitate handling of growing container traffic in the North-West region.

National Container Company (NCC) founded in 2002 is now the leading container terminal operator in Russia and CIS countries. NCC is owned 50/50 by First Quantum Group and FESCO Transport Group. In 2010, total container trade across the NCC’s stevedoring assets amounted to over 1.3m TEUs.

NCC’s portfolio of assets includes First Container Terminal (FCT, St. Petersburg), NUTEP Container Terminal (Novorossiysk), Ukrtranscontainer (Ilyichevsk, Odessa region, Ukraine), Ust-Luga Container Terminal (Leningrad region), Logistika Terminal (Shushary St. Petersburg) and Wilhelmshaven-based JadeWeserPort (Germany).

Port of Ust-Luga is located on Russia’s border with the EU. The port features 16-m deep harbor and a short 3.7-km approach channel, making Ust-Luga the major Russian port on the Baltic Sea, capable of accommodating 75,00dwt bulkers and 120,000dwt tankers. Currently, there are six terminals operating at the port (nine more to be commissioned soon). Overall, by 2018 there will be 19 terminals. In 2010, cargo throughput of Ust-Luga rose year-over-year by 13.7% to 11,78m tons.