1. Organization of port operations.

Merchant sea ports are intended to perform economic and administrative functions.

I’d like to start with economic functions. They are: servicing of inbound/outbound vessels transportation, forwarding and warehousing operations, transshipment of cargo to the modes of transport( and vice versa), servicing of deep sea vessels’ passengers. To perform these functions merchant sea ports have water areas, land territories, warehouses, open storage facilities, cargo handling facilities, passenger terminals, approach ways for railway and motor transport, and adequate personnel.

As for administrative functions sea responsible for ensuring safe navigation and proper order within the port, including supervision for adherence to shipping regulations, registration of vessels in the State Register of Shipping, issue and check up of ship’s papers, diplomata and qualification certificates of ship officers, clearance of vessels inwards and outwards, organization of pilotage and towage service and other functions of Port Operation Management.

Port Operation Management is carried out by 3 channels.

The higher channel controls port operations as a whole and consists of several parts, departments. Such as operations, planning commerce, shipping, labour and wages, mechanization, technology, personnel, accounts, administrative, harbour master’s and other servicing departments. The head of the port is the general director who controls the entire port. Each department is managed by a department head. But such functions as operations , commerce and shipping are headed by deputy general directors. Safety navigation and proper order within the port are the responsibilities of the harbour master who is a deputy general director at the same time.

The middle channel of management controls cargo handling complexes and other production units of the port. (E.g. auxiliary service fleet, depots for motor and electric lift trucks, railway and motor cars, repair and maintenance shops, rigging shops etc.) The main production units of the port are cargo handling complexes where all loading/discharging operations are carried out.

To perform the operations each cargo handling complex comprises terminals, stevedore gangs, traffic control service, warehouse and open storage facilities staff and it’s headed by superintendent.

The lower channel of management is involved in a direct control of cargo handling process on berths and in warehouses. The control is effected by chief stevedores, warehouse superintendents and stevedore gang foremen.

Nowadays each merchant sea port is a junction of different modes of transport, so the proper operation of related modes of transport are in dependence of good running of the port at each and every stage of transportation.

The port of st. Petersburg

The sea port of St. Petersburg is a large centre of water communications in the North West of the Russian Federation, a junction of different modes of transportation — shipping by sea and river, railway and road transport. Position. — Latitude — 59°54' N, longitude — 30°15' E.

The port is situated on the islands of the Neva mouth, in the Nevskaya Guba (Neva Bay), in the eastern extremity of the Gulf of Finland. The port. is accessible for vessels with 10.5 m draught in fresh water and is entered by the 2 mile long Morskoy Canal (Seaway) stretching from the port's receiving buoy to the mouth of the Neva River. Owing to icebreaker assistance navigation is year-round.

Notice of ETA. — When proceeding to the port Masters must, latest 12 hours before arrival at the receiving buoy (Sea Pilot Station), advise the port controller through the Inflot Agency about ETA at the Pilot Station.

Pilotage is compulsory for all ships.

Port customs. — Masters must give notice of ships readiness for loading/discharging to the shipper/consignee through the agent in the port within customary office hours, the vessel having been cleared in and being in free pratique. Before loading ship's cargo holds must be cleaned and made ready to receive the cargo. Laytime is to count from 1 p.m. (for timber cargoes from 6 p.m.) if the notice of readiness is given before noon, and from 8 a.m. the next working day if the notice is given after noon within customary office hours which are from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. SHEX. Loading/discharging is carried out daily in two shifts: from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and from 4 p.m. till midnight.

Dues and charges for services rendered to foreign ships, such as tonnage, canal, berth and pilotage dues and mooring/unmooring, shifting, towage, lighterage and cranage charges are paid in accordance with the port tariffs being in force.

Agency. — Foreign sea-going vessels are attended to by Maritime Agencies.

Port facilities. — The cargo turnover of the port exceeds 11 mln. tons. The port handles general cargo, bulk cargo (ore, coal, fertilizers, building materials), grain, metals, timber etc. The leading export commodities are timber, plywood, paper, non-ferrous metals, machine tools, automobiles, industrial equipment, machinery etc. The dominating imports are cotton, wool, equipment, rolled steel, tubes, coffee- and cocoa-beans, fruit, grain and other consumer goods. The port is very well equipped and mechanized for handling all these cargoes. It has very efficient gantry cranes, hundreds of fork-lift trucks, electric trucks, conveyers, up-to-date straddle carriers, side loaders and sophisticated general purpose machines which facilitate lifting, conveying, stacking, turning, shifting and rotating loads. For such goods as heavy logs, extraweights and long pieces of cargo there are appliances with a sufficient jib outstretch and maximum jib height. For handling containers there are container bridges. There are also shore based and floating coal- and grain-loaders, floating cranes of 15 to 100 tons capacity, a 350-ton floating crane being available in case of need. Numerous other cargo handling machines and intra-port transport facilities are available. The port has single- and multi-floor warehouses, modern sheltered storage spaces for general cargo and concrete floor yards for open storage, an elevator and a cold storage facility fitted out with high-duty cooling and freezing plants enabling to keep the right temperature for food perishables, such as meat, butter, eggs, fish, fruit etc. Its more than 100 berths and warehouses are linked by railways and approach ways for motor transport.

Cargo operations. — The port is managed by the general director, his deputy general director operational - being responsible for the forwarding service, the cargo loading/ unloading, organization service and the commerce service. The forwarding service, headed by the forwarding office manager, deals with settling with shipowners, ship agents, customs, inspections, intermodal transport means, cargo owners and their representatives different matters related to reception, delivery, storage etc. of all the goods passing through the port and matters related to cargo documents. The cargo loading/unloading operations are effected by a number of stevedoring companies. The main production units of the service are cargo handling complexes organizing and performing loading/discharging and other cargo operations (reception, warehousing, storage, securing of cargo etc.). At present in the port there are some cargo handling complexes specializing in handling specific cargoes and servicing specific cargo traffic routes.

The port of St. Petersburg is most important container port inRussia.

There are two competing terminals in the port. The first and biggest, appropriately named First Container Terminal, is managed by Sea Port of St Petersburg (Sea Port) a privately owned company made up of nine stevedoring and service businesses, but with 49% of its non voting shares still owned by the state. The second is operated by Petrolesport at berth 56 , in the timber port.

The main advantage of First Container Terminal is that it is a purpose built facility with an annual capacity of around 240.000TEU, which could easily be expanded to 500.000TEU if need be. It contains three feeder vessel berths in a straight line, worked by four ship-to-shore gantry cranes. Straddle carriers handle internal container movements, and there are a further four rail mounted gantry cranes for transferring rail borne traffic.