OREANDA-NEWS. April 19, 2011. Maksim Shirokov, Director General of "Ust-Luga Company" JSC, Marc Adriansens, Managing Director at International Car Operators and Joachim Kuns, President of the Zebrugge Port, signed a cooperation agreement.

The parties are intended to promote cooperation in forming a logistic chain of delivery of cars and rolling machines through Ust-Luga Port. International Car Operators, a Belgium company, plans to participate in developing the storage logistic center that will increase the capacity for the terminals of the southern sector of the Port.
"It is a very important agreement for us; it defines Ust-Luga Port and Russia in general as a world player in the logistics, a business with high added value, rather than in the sphere of raw material resources only— explained Maksim Shirokov, Director General of "Ust-Luga Company" JSC — By singing this agreement we actually establish a trade link between our countries."

Representatives of International Car Operators have visited Saint Petersburg within the framework of the Belgium trade and economic mission, headed by Philippe, Prince Royal of Belgium. The mission is aimed at promoting the relations between the two countries in business and investment, as well as at strengthening the Russian-Belgian relationships.
The day before, Prince Philippe familiarized himself with the plans for development of Skolkovo Innovation Center; he also met with RF President Dmitriy Medvedev. The Prince’s visit program for today included a visit to the office of Ust-Luga Compnay where he held a working meeting with Valery Serdyukov, Governor of the Leningrad Region, Valery Izrailyt, Chairman of "Ust-Luga Company" JSC Board, Viktor Olerskiy, Deputy Minister of Transport of Russia, and others. The meeting gave special consideration to creating port infrastructure together with representatives of another Belgian company, DEME, that had participated in constructing Ust-Luga Port since 2004. The questions of further cooperation in dredging were also discussed.

Reference information:
International Car Operators N.V. is one of the companies specialized in transshipping rolling cargos and rendering services for control of terminals, custom clearance and forwarding. ICO is a subsidiary company of Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK). NYK Group is the world’s biggest transport company managing 700 vessels, a stock of planes, trains and trucks.

"Ust-Luga Company" JSC is the Ust-Luga merchant seaport’s construction coordinator. The construction of the Port is being performed within the framework of the Federal Target Program "Development of the Transport System of Russia" on the state-private partnership basis.
In 2010, the cargo turnover of Ust-Luga Port was 11.8 mln. tons and 65,521 cars. In 2018, the port is expected to reach its full capacity and transship 180 mln. tons of various cargos annually.