The economy of the Murmansk region is a port, ore and fish. Natural resources and industrial giants have long been divided among the largest Russian oligarchs. In 2000, they invested more than 7.8 billion rubles, that is, over $250 million, in fixed capital and the development of production capacities of their industrial enterprises on the Kola Peninsula.
Nickel and others
More than 30% of the local budget is provided by the enterprises of RAO Norilsk Nickel, which owns the Severonickel, Pechenganikel and Olenegorsk Mechanical Plant plants. The share of Pechenganickel and Severonickel now accounts for more than 50% of the total volume of nickel produced by RAO. The management company of RAO enterprises on the Kola Peninsula is OJSC Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company, which is headed by the general director of the Pechenganikel plant, Igor Blatov. He is considered perhaps the most influential person in the region.
Pechenganikel, located at two sites in the city of Zapolyarny and the village of Nikel, includes four mines and a processing plant. The main products of the plant are the product of nickel ore enrichment - high-grade matte - and sulfuric acid. Fainstein subsequently goes to the Severonickel plant in Monchegorsk, where it is used to produce finished metal. In addition to nickel, the Monchegorsk enterprise produces cobalt and precious metal concentrates. The concept for the development of Kola enterprises of RAO Norilsk Nickel assumes that within 5-7 years about $400 million will be spent on reforming production and developing the raw material base of local enterprises. By 2005, it is planned to complete the construction of a copper-nickel mine in Pechenga and begin development of a chromite deposit near Monchegorsk, where a processing plant is being built. Among the long-term plans of RAO is additional exploration of copper-platinum and titanium deposits of the Kola Peninsula.
At the beginning of this year, the Kandalaksha aluminum smelter lost its independence; in January, the process of joining the Irkutsk, Ural, Bogoslovsky (Sverdlovsk region) and Kandalaksha aluminum smelters into the SUAL group was completed. The ferrous metallurgy of the Murmansk region is dominated by Severstal, whose enterprises operate on iron ore concentrate from the Olenegorsk and Kovdor mining and processing plants. Like the Norilsk Nickel group, Severstal has in recent years relied on the development of its mineral resource base in the Murmansk region. In 1999, the Komsomolskoye iron ore deposit was put into operation. Now preparations are underway for the construction of underground workings, which should increase production at the Olenegorsk and Kirovogorsk mines.
The list of oligarchic structures represented in the Murmansk region continues with the Yukos-Rosprom group, which owns Apatit OJSC and the MDM group, which controls the Kovdorsky Mining and Processing Plant. Both enterprises produce apatite concentrate, used for mineral fertilizers, and raw materials for the metallurgical industry. OJSC Apatit also produces nepheline, which serves as a raw material for the production of alumina. In addition, at the end of last year, the company entered into an agreement with RAO Norilsk Nickel on joint exploration of the Gremyakho-Vyrmes deposit of apatite and titanium ore. The volume of production of apatite concentrate at JSC Apatit last year amounted to 8.5 million tons. Therefore, after two years of experimental operation of the State Enterprise "Kandalaksha Sea Trade Port", OJSC "Apatit" decided to reconstruct the port. According to preliminary estimates, it will cost $35 million and will take place over two years. At the same time, the throughput capacity of the transshipment complex will increase from 0.5 to 1.5 million tons per year.
OJSC Kovdor Mining and Processing Plant (KovGOK) produces iron ore concentrate, supplied mainly to Severstal, apatite concentrate for the St. Petersburg enterprise Phosphorit and baddeleyite (zirconium oxide). Baddeleyite is supplied to the Norwegian company NIKO, in which, according to unofficial data, KovGOK owns a 30% stake, and to the Japanese Sumitomo and Mitsui. 36% of KovGOK shares belong to the MDM group, which acquired them in September last year; from 12% to 16% is controlled by Severstal. The MDM Group intended to increase its stake to a controlling stake by purchasing a 21% stake from the Murmansk Region Property Fund. However, the regional governor, Yuri Evdokimov, decided not to sell this stake, but suggested that the president secure the securities in state ownership by transferring them to the Ministry of State Property.
How ships are seen off
Murmansk Shipping Company (MMP) is under the control of the LUKoil concern (a controlling stake in LUKoil-Arctic Tanker). At the same time, MMP, which has under its operational management the only icebreaker fleet in Russia, ensures a virtual monopoly of Russian cargo transportation along the Northern Sea Route. LUKoil, thus, solves the strategic problem of year-round transportation of oil from the Timan-Pechora field. The company plans to build its own oil refining plant in the Murmansk region.
The activities of Norilsk Nickel enterprises are closely related to MMP. In winter, MMP icebreakers escort ships with their cargo. Norilsk Nickel, in turn, provides more than 80% of MMP cargo traffic. There have always been tensions between companies regarding the formation of tariffs. At the end of last year, the government adopted a resolution that deprived MMPs of the opportunity to independently set tariffs for icebreaker fleet services. Now tariffs are set by the Ministry of Transport in agreement with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Development, but they continue to rise.
At the end of 2000, the former general director of MMP Vyacheslav Ruksha was appointed first deputy minister of transport and head of the Russian Maritime Service. So, in return for the lost freedom in setting tariffs, MSEs now have a serious lobby in the government. The appointment of Mr. Ruksha became a landmark event for MMP also because the Icebreaker Fleet State Enterprise is a subsidized enterprise. In 2001, federal budget subsidies for the maintenance of the icebreaker fleet will amount to 380 million rubles. — versus RUB 45.7 million. last year. There's still not enough money. In the next 5 years, five of the seven icebreakers may be laid up due to severe wear and tear. The shipping company considers the only way out of this situation to be extending the operating life of nuclear icebreakers from the design 100 to 175 thousand hours. The modernization of each icebreaker will cost $2-4 million. Vyacheslav Ruksha will have to find these funds - the MMP itself, to which the state already owes about $42 million, is not able to pay such expenses, and LUKoil prefers to build its own icebreakers and ice-class vessels. And about. The general director of OJSC MMP is now Viktor Kiselev, the former first deputy general director. His candidacy must be approved at the annual meeting of shareholders, which will take place in May 2001.
The controlling stake in the Murmansk Commercial Sea Port (MMTP) belongs to the state. The composition of non-state shareholders of MMTP is not disclosed. Large foreign investors have recently become seriously interested in the port, which is associated with export supplies of Russian coal. As is known, the 1998 agreement, which was concluded by the then Minister of Transport Nikolai Aksenenko and the Governor of the Kemerovo Region Aman Tuleyev, established lenient railway tariffs for the delivery of Kuzbass coal to Russian ports. MMTP's package of orders for export transportation of coal amounts to about 8 million tons per year. The main buyer of MMTP's services for receiving heavy-duty vessels and coal transshipment, the Italian company Coeclerici Carbometal SPA, two years ago allocated $1 million in an interest-free loan for work to increase the working depth of the berths to 15 meters of draft. The work was completed last year, and MMTP now has the opportunity to accept ships with a displacement of 120-140 thousand tons.
On March 21, MMTP received the dry cargo ship Cape Eqvinox, which came to Murmansk to pick up 120 thousand tons of Kemerovo coal for shipment to Amsterdam. The reception and maintenance of one such vessel brings the port $300 thousand in income. However, Cape Eqvinox is only the second vessel of its class to visit the new berth in the past year. According to MMTP General Director Valery Nikulin, the reason is the novelty of the route and the absence of a coal terminal. Therefore, MMTP has been negotiating with Coeclerici Carbometal SPA for several months about financing the construction of a coal terminal. On March 21, at a meeting with the governor, Italian investors confirmed their intention to invest $75 million in construction. During this year they will make a final decision.
The Achilles heel of MMTP is its remoteness from the central regions of Russia, where the main consumers of raw materials are concentrated. Therefore, the port faces the acute problem of setting railway tariffs. If in the early 90s the Murmansk port accepted up to 1 million tons of imported alumina for shipment to domestic aluminum enterprises, now it has become expensive to transport alumina from the Murmansk port, and the cargo flow has shifted to St. Petersburg.
Basin disputes
Last year, the share of fish products in the regional gross product was more than 17%. After the disastrous 90s, the leading fleets increased production (in 1999: JSC Murmansk Trawling Fleet - 1.7 times, JSC Murmansk Trawling Fleet - 1.5 times, JSC Murmanrybprom - 1.4 times , JSC "Murmansk Provincial Fleet" - 2.6 times). Leading coastal processing enterprises are also doing well: at OJSC Protein, production volume increased 1.5 times, at OJSC Murmansk Fish Processing Plant - 2.3 times, at OJSC MRKK Severnaya Palmira - almost doubled.
Murmansk fish miners are typical representatives of their industry. Together with their colleagues, they export fish abroad (over the past 5 years, fishermen of the Northern Basin have exported 620 thousand tons of cod and haddock to Norway, where 40 factories have already been built for our fish), build ships under bareboat charter agreements in Western shipyards, promoting prosperity foreign processing industry. But all this, as in other regions, is not due to a good life. The new system of quota distribution through auctions is still causing great concern. Fishermen literally lose their temper when they talk about this, but they still participate in auctions and take out loans against them.
Over the past year, the balance of power in the local fishing industry has changed somewhat. The long-time director and coordinator of the fishery of ZAO Sevryba has left the arena. After the privatization of fleets and coastal enterprises, Sevryba (the former VRPO of the same name) turned into a joint-stock company, which included 33 industry enterprises, firms and companies, producing a total of more than 20% of all Russian fish products. The society coordinated and controlled their activities and at first even participated in the distribution of fish quotas. However, last year, the general director of Sevryba, Georgy Tishkov, was relieved of his post, and Deputy Governor Yuri Myasnikov became his successor. According to one version, the influential Tishkov was removed from the “steering wheel” in order to make it easier to take away coordinating functions from Sevryba. Even then, there was talk in the industry about the initiative of the regional administration to create a basin fisheries department, which essentially was supposed to replace Sevryba.
But in February of this year, the State Fisheries Committee intervened in the situation. By his order, most of the functions of basin management were taken away from Sevryba and transferred to other organizations: Murmanrybvod, the recently created representative office of the State Fisheries Committee in the Northern Basin and others. However, local authorities do not give up hope of regaining influence on the industry (see interview with Yuri Evdokimov on page 19).
ANNA NEVSKAYA,
VYACHESLAV GUDKOV, Murmansk

Newspaper "Kommersant St. Petersburg" No. 53 dated March 27, 2001, p. 2

From permafrost and ice-free sea