Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has approved a request from the country's steel and coking coal producer Mechel to buy 100 percent of Vanino port on the Pacific coast, the FAS said on Wednesday.
Mechel is buying the port from the state, which currently holds a 73 percent stake in the port, and En+Group, owned by Oleg Deripaska, which has 27 percent. The value of the deal is unknown.
Kommersant business daily said this January that Mechel planned to build a new coal terminal near Vanino port in 2012. The launch of the terminal has not been determined, but it will have a planned capacity of 25 million tons.
Vanino Commercial Sea Port is among the ten largest in Russia and in the top five in the Far East. The turnover of the port in January-February 2012 exceeded 926,000 tons. The main cargoes are coal, nonferrous and ferrous metals, timber, lumber, ore and containers.
