-- Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP) has ordered 26 Kalmar forklifts, terminal tractors and reachstackers for its Tsemess Bay facility to work alongside 44 other Kalmar machines at the port.

The order has been already partly filled, with the remaining 15 units - nine forklifts, four terminal tractors and two reachstackers - to be delivered by the end of this month.

NCSP marketing head Peter Stepanenko said the company had bought Kalmar equipment since 1993, and the latest order would take the port's total fleet to 70 units.

"This large-scale purchase corresponds with the positive dynamics of steel, container and raw sugar traffic through the port," he said.

The order's 17 forklifts include two 32-tonne, four 28-tonne, four 20-tonne and seven 10-tonne capacity machines. The 10-tonne forklifts will be used for rail shunting in NCSP's central raw sugar operation. Each forklift will be fitted with custom fork attachments for handling steel coils. The reachstackers are 45-tonne capacity models, with seven-metre wheelbases.

NCSP handles oil, steel and non-ferrous metals, paper and pulp, raw sugar, fertilisers and containers. As one of the largest seaports in Russia, NCSP handles the majority of Russia's cargo traffic. In 2000, cargo throughput reached 52 million tonnes.

Kalmar is a global provider of materials handling equipment to ports, intermodal traffic, terminals and industrial customers. The company, which has manufacturing plants in Sweden, Finland, the USA, the Netherlands and Estonia, says every fourth container or trailer transfer in the world is performed by a Kalmar machine.