October 12, 2011 [Vedomosti] - The Russian Global Ports Investments (GPI, part of "N-Trans"), together with Royal Vopak submitted an application to participate in the tender to build and operate Tank Terminal Europoort West in the port of Rotterdam, wrote "Prime" with reference to the Deputy Transport Minister of Russia Viktor Olersky.
The representative of “N-Trans” declined to comment and so did his colleague from Vopak. GPI and Vopak already have a joint business – in 2007 they combined their oil terminals in the port of Tallinn, forming the joint venture Vopak EOS.
The applications for participation in the tender for the construction of the oil terminal (on two plots of land of 55 ha in total), the Port of Rotterdam Authority (PoR) has been accepting till July 22, 2011. Applicants had to be experienced in operating large terminals and guarantee steady throughput volumes at the new terminal. PoR is to announce the results at the end of the year. The names of the other participants have not been disclosed.
However, at least one rival of the GPI consortium is already known. It is the alliance between the Russian businessman Ziyavudin Magomedov’s “Summa” and the trader Vitol together with a shipping company. According to the Summa representative, the interest to the project remains strong. Besides Summa and GPI there has been an interest shown by some European and Asian companies, says the source close to one of the Russian applicants.
The analyst of “VTB Capital” Elena Sakhnova believes that the consortium of Vitol and Summa has a bigger chance to win the tender: they can ensure throughput volumes at the terminal, while the alliance of GPI and Vopak would probably have to look for a trading company as a partner. Despite the volatile market, it is still profitable to invest in this project (it will cost about $250 million), believes Sakhnova.
