OREANDA-NEWS. September 17, 2009. The Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation expects a 50-pct increase of throughput in Russian seaports within several years, RF Transport Minister Igor Levitin said.

“Seaports are the only segment of transport to increase throughput in the crisis year. It means that export/import structure is changing: Russian ports demonstrate growth for 8 months of 2009,” he said.

“I think it is quite possible to increase throughput of seaports by 50% within several years,” RZD-Partner cites the Minister.

“We see we need deepwater ports to operate round the year as in the North, you know, operation is only possible with the assistance of icebreakers because of the weather conditions. So shipbuilding and port development are closely connected. We think new facilities in Ust-Luga and Kozmino in the Far East will make it possible for Russia to ship all oil products via its territory,” he said.

The Minister also noted that private investors and the federal budget have already spent RUR 100 bln and RUR 25 bln respectively into for the development of seaports.

“It is one of the priority segments in transport today,” Levitin added.