FESCO Transport Group (32.5% of shares owned by Ziyavudin Magomedov, 17.4% – by Mikhail Rabinovich, 23.8% – by his partner, Chairman of the Board of Directors of FESCO Andrey Severilov), which owns the Vladivostok Commercial Sea Port (VMTP), closed the deal on the purchase of Port Gaidamak JSC with the expectation of creating on its basis a terminal for transshipment of grain cargo from Russia to the APR countries. The FESCO statement says that the acquisition of the terminal is the beginning of a project to create a port infrastructure in Primorye for shipping grain cargo, “which currently has no analogues in the region.”
Port Gaidamak provides stevedoring and terminal services and is adjacent to the Russian Railways network. The total area is about 21,000 sq. M. Freight turnover in 2020 amounted to 200,000 tons. In 2020, the company’s profit amounted to 4.4 million rubles, revenue – 60 million rubles.
FESCO noted that after the modernization of the terminal in 2024, capacities for transshipment of grain using elevators in the amount of more than 400,000 tons per year will be created. According to Severilov, quoted by the company’s press service, these facilities will be created on the basis of the combined Femsta terminal (a subsidiary of FESCO for processing export, import and cabotage cargo at VMTP – Vedomosti) and Porta Gaidamak. “This will be a fundamentally new service in the Primorsky Territory, which we plan to implement in addition to transshipment of general cargo at the terminal,” he explained.
The press service of FESCO does not comment on the amount of the transaction and investments in the development of the terminal.
The company now owns three dry terminals in Novosibirsk, Tomsk and Khabarovsk. As FESCO President Arkady Korostelev told reporters in June at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the group planned to develop a network of dry terminals, investments in the acquisition of capacities in 2021 were planned at the level of $ 70 million.
Experts believe that despite the fact that the asset is not large, this is a good deal. Aleksey Bezborodov, managing partner of Infraprojects, says that the asset should be viewed not as a port, but as land. “FESCO made a good deal, such assets are in price. It is a small port located near the bridge to the Russky Island. He always did a little cabotage, a little transshipment. But they were buying exactly the territory on which, according to their strategy, they will develop new directions, ”he noted.
According to the managing director of the NRA rating service, Sergei Grishunin, the port’s cargo turnover of 200,000 tons with revenues of 60 million rubles corresponds to $ 4 per 1 ton of cargo handled, which is much lower than the average cost of transshipment of Russian ports. “In this regard, it can be assumed that part of the profit is deposited on stevedoring companies, which can earn up to $ 5 EBITDA per ton. Thus, the port could cost 350-400 million rubles, ”the expert summed up. In his opinion, doubling the capacity will require investments at the level of 200-300 million rubles.
The general director of Infoline-Analytics Mikhail Burmistrov estimated investments in the construction of new facilities at more than $ 10 million. he. Grishunin also agrees with the demand for the terminal, since most of the berths for bulk cargo in the Far East are now dedicated to coal.
According to the Russian Grain Union (RGU), in the 2020-2021 agricultural year (from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021), the volume of Russian grain exports amounted to 48 million tons. Now, in terms of export volumes, Iran remains the leader, where 5 , 6 million tons. Turkey is in second place with 4.5 million tons, Egypt accounted for 3.7 million tons. Also, a significant increase in shipments of Russian grains, mainly wheat, is recorded in individual countries of Southeast Asia (Philippines, Thailand), East Asia (Mongolia, South Korea), as well as Africa.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, from the beginning of the season to November 25, 2021, Russia exported 18 million tons of grain, which is 24.1% less than the same period last year. The agency forecasts grain exports from Russia in 2021-2022 agricultural year at 45-48 million tons, RZS – at 42 million tons, Sovekon – at 43.8 million tons, the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies – at 40-41.5 million tons.
Dmitry Baranov, a leading expert of Finam Management, added that the creation of specialized capacities for transshipment of grain on the basis of Port Gaidamak could be very promising for farmers from Siberia and the Far East, since the distance to it is shorter than to ports in the European part of Russia … “If any consumer reduces the volume of purchases or the situation on the market of one of the grain crops deteriorates, the port will be able to switch to other customers and other types of grain,” the expert summed up.
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