MOSCOW, July 5 (AVN) - The Astrakhan Shipping Company JSO has been established in accordance with the co-operation agreement signed on April 25 by the Astrakhan region and Moscow-based New Programmes and Concepts holding company, a spokesman for the company told the Military News Agency on Thursday.
Organisers of the new shipping line have held a session in Astrakhan this week. It involved officials of the North-western Steamship Line JSO (39 percent of shares), Ladoga Lake Shipping Co. Ltd. (26 percent of shares), Vagmarine Co. Ltd. (30 percent of shares) and Astrakhan region state property fund (five percent of shares). The participants approved the company's charter and treaty of its establishment, elected the board of directors and revision commission and approved the auditor.
The main aim of the company is transportation of cargo between Russia and Iran and by the North-South transport corridor. Currently the company's has three vessels - Ladoga 107 and Ladoga 108 bulk carriers of the North-western Steamship Line and Messenger motor ship of the Sormovsky series rented from the Vagna-Shipping company.
The vessels will start operating on the Russia-Iran route on August 1, 2001, transporting cargo in containers, metals, timber and other general cargo. The supposed transportation volume will amount at 150,000t per year and up to one million tons per year in the near future.
"Russia did not have such steamship line for at least 10 years," Boris Kuzyk, director general of New Programmes and Concepts, told the Agency when asked to comment on the company's establishment. "We analysed cargo traffic on the territory in the past five years. It grew 5.5 times. The new route which envisages full-scale use of the North-South corridor will be 1.5 times less expensive that the Suez Canal," he said..
"The cargo will be transported from India to Iran and then to northern Europe by the Volga River. We plan to use up to 25 vessels after the cargo traffic increases. The vessels might sail the Major European Transport Circle together with the Volga-Don Canal and Minor European Circle which is from the Rhine to Danube. Those projects have the strategic importance for Russia's integration into the global economic society," Kuzyk said.