PRESS: Russian Railways to get 25% in Ust-Luga ferry company

MOSCOW, Mar 7 (PRIME) -- Russian Railways will receive a blocking stake in a company which is being established to build and use ferries on the Ust-Luga–Baltiysk line, business daily Kommersant reported on Tuesday, citing an order given to the Transport Ministry at a February meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak.

The government is ready to allocated 5.1 billion rubles for construction of ferries.

The ferry line Ust-Luga–Baltiysk, with Baltiysk located in Russia’s exclave Kaliningrad Region, was launched in 2006. The two current ferries are to be written off soon. Lukoil, Tatneft and Russian Coal are the main clients of the line; Kaliningrad returns empty cisterns or agricultural goods.

Railways supplies are cheaper but less secure due to transit across Lithuania and Belarus. Plans to abolish subsidies on railway supplies to the Kaliningrad Region in order to make the ferry line competitive were also discussed at the meeting. Russian Railways plans to sign take-or-pay agreements with future suppliers.

(58.3370 rubles – U.S. $1)

End