Vanino, Khabarovsk Krai

Geography

Vanino is located 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) north (straight-line distance) from Sovetskaya Gavan, but the actual road distance is about twice as much, as the sea coast is highly indented.

History

Vanin Bay on the Strait of Tartary was named after a topographer who worked in a team that prepared maps of the coast in 1874. Vanino was established in 1907.

The Vanino Harbor, then considered part of Sovetskaya Gavan, received an overland connection with the rest of the USSR with the construction of railway from Komsomolsk-on-Amur (the easternmost section of the future Baikal-Amur Mainline), which was started in 1943 and completed in 1945. That caused quick growth of the port in Vanino Harbor.

During the 1940s, Vanino, along with Vladivostok, was a major port for shipping convicts from the "mainland" USSR to Magadan, the port for the Kolyma Gulag labor camps. In post-Stalin era, the importance of the port continued to increase, as it provided the shortest connection to the seaports of Russian north-east. The cargo volumes handled by the port peaked in 1989, at 11.5 million tons. In 2005, the volume was 6.2 million tons.

In 1958, Vanino was administratively separated from Sovetskaya Gavan, becoming an urban-type settlement. In 1973, it became the administrative center of the newly created Vaninsky District.

Economy

Vanino is an important port on the Strait of Tartary (northernmost part of Sea of Japan), served by the BAM railway line. The settlement's economic significance is based on its port, which is among the ten largest ports of Russia measured by its cargo-handling volume.

As of 2009, Vanino is a hub (and the main mainland railway connection) for the Sakhalin Shipping Company, which runs regular cargo boats from this port to Magadan, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and Pusan. Since 1973, this company has also operated an icebreaker vehicular, passenger, and rail ferry service from Vanino to Kholmsk, providing an important connection between Sakhalin and the Russian mainland.

Vanino also has an oil terminal, as well as an oil refinery, run by Transbunker Group; it is the only oil refinery in Russia that is designed specifically for producing fuel oil for ship engines.

Vanino is Russia's second largest coal port on the Pacific after Vostochny Port (near Nakhodka), with between 1.5 million tonnes and 2 million tonnes of coal being handled per year. Russia's largest coal producer Mechel is constructing its own terminal in Vanino to supply coal-hungry Asian markets. The new terminal is expected to be ready in 2012 and will have the capacity to handle 25 million tonnes per year.

Sister cities

Vanino is twinned with the following sister cities: