Until now vessels transporting cargo from Dudinka to Europe or Asia had to go to either Murmansk or Vladivostok for time-consuming custom clearance. With the new border-crossing point, all the formalities connected to border-crossing and custom clearance can be done before leaving port.
Foreign vessels can go directely to Dudinka, having all the necessary documents executed in port there, Norilsk Nickel’s web site reads.
“Today we have taken a big step in the development of the Arctic”, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolay Patrushev said during the official opening ceremony today. “We have opened a border-crossing point that will improve the quality of service for our vessels and contribute to economic development of the region”, he said, according to RIA Novosti.
The first vessel to have its border-crossing and customs clearance procedures done in Dudinka was Norilsk Nickel’s own diesel-electric vessel “Norilsky Nikel”, leaving for European ports with the metal products.
Norilsk Nickel has in course of the last six years acquired six ice-class container vessels and one ice-class tanker. The annual freight turnover ensured by the company’s fleet along the Northern Sea Route totals 1 million tons, of which 450.000 tons are metal products and 550.000 tons are cargos for the Norilsk Industrial District.
