Norwegian granite for Russian pipelines

Audun Celius (left) from Tschudi Shipping Company and Hans Kuiper from Graniet Import are ready for larger contracts with their Russian partners. (Photo: Jonas Karlsbakk)

For Tschudi Shipping Company, one of the main shareholders in the Sydvaranger mine, the possibility to make use of the aggregates from iron ore production has been an important project for many years.

This summer they have signed a contract for delivering aggregates to pipeline work outside the Yamal peninsula in Russia. It is the Dutch company Graniet Import which is handling the contract and will transport the granite to the Kara Sea and the Baydaratskaya bay, where it will be used for covering the new gas pipeline from the Yamal Peninsula to the European gas market.

Hope for more
- For Tschudi Shipping Company it has been a very important task to make use of aggregates from the mining area. Now we have the first contract and we hope there will be more in the future, says Trond Dahlberg in Tschudi Shipping Company.

The current contract is for 160 000 tons of aggregates. Three ships will go in traffic between Kirkenes and Baydaratskaya Bay until October 15, a voyage which takes approximately three days without stop. - If this contract is a success then we will definitely try to develop this project for more shipments next year and at a higher scale. I believe this is just the start of something far bigger, says Hans Kuiper from the Graniet Import Company.

They deliver aggregates to all kinds of construction projects all over Europe and have now turned their eyes towards the Russian market. The first shipment is about to be sent eastwards this week where it will be loaded over to a smaller vessel which are specially design for distributing aggregates under water.

Sydvaranger’s competitive advantage is that the company has a product which is almost ready for shipment. They have to adjust the size of the aggregates, but the workload is minimal. If the aggregates are to be found elsewhere, the preparation work would have been more extensive and more costly.

The first vessel from the Graniet Import company is ready for sailing from Kirkenes to Baydaratskaya Bay. (Photo: Thomas Nilsen)

320 million tons
There are several planned offshore projects in the Barents Sea and further east. Kuiper believe that they have a good possibility of signing more contracts, both outside Yamal and elsewhere. With larger contracts there will be larger ships coming in and thus increased profits of the project. Tschudi Shipping Company is ready to supply Kuiper’s company with more aggregates at any time.

- There are 320 million tons of aggregates left in Bjørnevatn after 90 years of iron ore production, so we are ready to engage on contracts with far larger quantities, says Audun Celius in Tschudi Shipping Company.

With larger contracts they would also have to do investments in better infrastructure, but with long term contracts they are prepared to do such demanded investments.