The loading of the first part of a consignment of iron ore onto the Yue Shan capesize vessel was completed on 16 August. At the TIS Coal terminal, 103,000 tons was loaded onto the vessel in a single day. Taking into account the initial and final loading operations, the loading rate was 100,003 tons per day, with a total of 120,100 tons of cargo loaded. The total duration of the loading operation was 28.5 hours, a source at the Yuzhny port told the CFTS.

This figure is more than three times higher than the average loading rate that was achieved at the Yuzhny port in the first half of this year, and it is likely to be the standard rate during the loading of Capesize vessels at the TIS Coal terminal. According to experts, such a loading rate was made possible by the investment in modernization at the terminal over the past four months.

The Yue Shan vessel’s second consignment of 50,000 tons will be loaded at the berths of the Yuzhny port. To compete with the TIS Coal terminal, which is a private operator, the Yuzhny port should load this volume of cargo onto the vessel in no more than 12 hours.

Previously, the maximum speed of processing Capesize vessels at the Yuzhny port was 87,100 tons per day (the Cavalliere Grazia Bottiglieri vessel in 2015). The loading rate of 80,500 tons per day was reached during the processing of the Voge Master Capesize vessel in July 2016. For comparison, the maximum speed of processing a Capesize vessel at the port’s main competitor – the Illichivsk port – is 18,000-22,000 tons per day.

In total, 41 Capesize vessels and 2 Newcastlemax vessels were loaded to their maximum draughts at the Yuzhny port in in the first half of 2016. The maximum loading rate during this period was 56,900 tons per day and the average was 30,000 tons per day. 

The total volume of ore transshipment in the Yuzhny port’s waters reduced by 15% to 9.43 million tons and the total volume of coal transshipment by 35% to 1.67 million tons in the first half of 2016, compared with the same period of last year. Cargoes from the SCM group’s enterprises account for most of the cargo handled at the Yuzhny port.