NOVOROSSIYSK, RUSSIA — Delo Group, the largest transport and logistics holding company in Russia, on July 20 inaugurated a new deep-water berth with a length of 309 meters and total area of nearly 7,700 square meters. Depth at the berth is 16.9 meters, making it the deepest berth in the Azov-Black Sea basin.

Delo Group said it invested approximately $68 million in the project, which was dubbed “Reconstruction of KSK Grain Terminal.” The KSK terminal ranks No. 2 in terms of transshipment volumes in Russia.

According to Delo Group, the berth’s depth now allows it to receive vessels with deadweight up to 100,000 tons and maximum draft up to 14.4 meters. Prior to its commissioning, KSK Grain Terminal could receive grain carriers with a maximum carrying capacity of up to 50,000 tons. With the launch of the berth, the planned capacity of KSK increased to 7 million tons per year, Delo Group said.

“Today we are not just opening a new modern port infrastructure facility,” said Sergey Shishkarev, owner of Delo Group. “We mark the completion of a major comprehensive investment project launched in 2015 for the reconstruction of the NUTEP and KSK terminals. The total volume of investments made by the group in this project amounted to $335 million of its own funds alone, without attracting government investments.

“Nevertheless, all our investment projects are always calculated taking into account the implementation of the strategic objectives of the state and national projects. The development of logistics for Russian agricultural exports will strengthen the role of Russia in the world grain market, open new sales markets for Russian farmers in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The group has always associated itself with the economic system of our country, its principle is ‘Developing with the economy, developing for the economy.’”

Oksana Lut, deputy minister of agriculture of the Russian Federation, said about 90% of domestic grain exports go by sea, mostly through the Azov-Black Sea ports. As a result, Novorossiysk remains one of the most important transport locations in the region.

The long-term strategy for the development of the grain complex assumes a significant increase in the harvest in the next 10 years.

“Projects like this are very important from the point of view of further increasing exports and improving transport accessibility,” Lut said.

DeloPorts is a holding company that owns and operates stevedore assets of Delo Group in the port of Novorossiysk. DeloPorts consolidates NUTEP Container Terminal, KSK Grain Terminal and Delo Service Company.

Delo Group is the largest transport and logistics holding in Russia, managing sea container terminals in the Azov-Black Sea, Baltic and Far Eastern basins, a network of railway container terminals, a fleet of containers and fitting platforms. The parent company of the Group is LLC MC Delo, 70% owned by the founder of the Group, Sergey Shishkarev, and 30% is owned by State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom.

The Group's stevedoring business includes DeloPorts holding and Global Ports, a leading container terminal operator. The transport and logistics business of the group is made up of the multimodal transport operator Ruscon and the intermodal container operator TransContainer that owns and operates the largest fleet of containers and flatcars over the entire 1520 standard railway network.