After a international competitive bidding procedure, the Port of Tallinn Authority and Rail Garant have concluded a contract for the development and operation of a 130 million Euro container terminal in Muuga Harbour. MTBS acted as transaction advisor for the Port Authority in drafting the tender approach, conducting a market consultation and assistance during the procedure. In the last year, the Port of Tallinn conducted negotiations with some ten prospective container terminal operators, two of which submitted specific project proposals as to operating the given area. Among the proposals submitted within the tender to find the operator of the new terminal, the proposal of Rail Garant was deemed the best.

Rail Garant is one of the largest Russian transport holdings, which includes 11 railway and container transportation carriers and forwarding agents. The consolidated rolling stock of the holding exceeds the number of 20 thousand rail cars; the company development strategy implies increasing the rolling stock up to 50 thousand of rail cars by 2013, which would ensure the Rail Garant holding a place among the among the largest top five independent operators in Russia.

The container terminal development project will cover a part of Muuga Harbor with the area of 71 hectare, 27 hectares of which are intended for the terminal itself; and 44 hectares, for emergency space. Within the framework of the project, mooring 378 meters in length has been built. Besides, the necessary infrastructure consisting of access roads and utility lines will be constructed in the Eastern part of the port. The terminal is to start operating within the first quarter of 2013.

According to the Chairman of the Management of the Port of Tallinn Authority, Ain Kaljurand, the project at hand will contribute to the development of transit and promote healthy competition in the sphere of container transportation and enhance the competitive position of the Port of Tallinn. “The international business in the area of logistics is moving towards clean and mobile container transportation; so being the largest port of the Baltic Sea, it is high time that we secured our positions in the given sphere,” Kaljurand stated. “The concept of Rail Garant is genuinely unique: while the goods of the Russian direction have been moving from the West to the East so far, the company’s business plan implies the reverse movement, from the East to the West. That will provide additional transportation facilities for Estonia and advantages for exporters. To put it simply, new opportunities for transporting goods will be open to Estonian manufacturers, and delivering them to other countries of the world will be cheaper,” Kaljurand elaborated.

As the Chairman of the Board of Rail Garant, Nikolai Falin, believes, the convenient location, the well-developed infrastructure, the year-round navigation, the simplified procedures of transit processing and no custom tolls are, undoubtedly, the major advantages of the Port of Tallinn. “Meanwhile, the ports of the North-Western waters of Russia are overloaded and do not possess the necessary capacity for the transshipment of the present volume of goods,” Falin stated.