Press material distributed by Russian officials in Moscow said that Maersk's APM Terminals unit was considering investing in a port project which is expected to cost more than $3.5 billion. Kaliningrad is Russia's only ice-free port on the Baltic Sea Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, on a one-day visit to Denmark, told a news conference that he believed it would be possible for Danish companies to participate in the reconstruction of the Kaliningrad port area.
Putin was scheduled to visit the headquarters of A.P. Moller-Maersk after meeting with Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
APM Terminals' spokesman Erik Eisenberg told Reuters it was premature to talk about a concrete project and that the company is only in early talks to determine the potential for such a facility.
"We are interested in the Kaliningrad area as a potential place for investment but it is premature to talk about it as a place for a project or an investment," Eisenberg said.
"We own a piece of land in the Kaliningrad port area, and we are looking at what possibilities there would be to invest there," he added. "We are generally interested in high-growth markets, and Russia is one of those."
If APM Terminals were to decide to invest in a Kaliningrad facility, it would be its first Baltic Sea port terminal, Eisenberg said.
Russian government press material showed that the port facility planned for Baltiysk in the Kaliningrad area would have capacity for 6 million shipping containers per year.
Eisenberg said that APM Terminals had no comment on the possible size of the facility or total investment budget.
"We don't have any specific investment plans when it comes to Kaliningrad because this is just a question of researching the possibilities," he said. (Reuters)
