The State Corporation Rosatom has changed the location and concept of the Western Transport and Logistics Hub in the Murmansk region. The original project involved the construction of a container hub in Belokamenka for transshipment of transit cargo from ice-class vessels to conventional ones, but the estimated cargo volume was never achieved. The port is being moved to the eastern shore of the Kola Bay – to Murmansk itself.
The new concept abandons the focus on transshipment in favor of export-import transportation. Specialists are already studying the launch of a terminal on the existing infrastructure of the Murmansk Sea Fishing Port, which intends to modernize the northern area and create a container terminal on an area of more than 51 hectares. Initially, the Western TLU project was estimated at 44.6 billion rubles and was supposed to be completed in 2026.
The joint venture of Rosatom and DP World – OOO "International Container Logistics" – continues to own 100% of OOO "Western Transport and Logistics Hub". Transit cargo traffic along the Northern Sea Route in 2023 amounted to 2.1 million tons, and earlier Rosatom had already lowered its forecast for transportation by 2030 to 117 million tons instead of the initial 200 million. In fact, the absence of regular container lines and the lack of a fleet forced the state corporation to redraw logistics, focusing on cargo that is already in the region, rather than on hypothetical transit.
