Gulftainer, the port operator based in Sharjah, plans to invest US$275 million (Dh1.01 billion) to develop and operate a port near St Petersburg.
The project is planned to be at Ust-Luga and provide an alternative to the congested St Petersburg Port.
Volumes through the Baltic have risen dramatically in recent years, but there is huge scope for growth as the ratio of containers handled to population is only 30 per 1,000 people in Russia, compared with 168 per 1,000 in the EU.
"Russia is of course one of the famous Brics, one of the big developing economies - a very large country with a transport and port infrastructure which is still capable of considerable development," said Keith Nuttall, the group commercial manager at Gulftainer.
"I'm sure it's a good beacon for UAE businesses because it shows that UAE businesses like ours - private companies like ours - are looking at investing in this big, important country and to boost trade between the two trade nations," said Mr Nuttall.
The deal was signed in Sochi on the Black Sea by Badr Jafar, the vice chairman of Gulftainer, and Valeriy Israylit, the Ust-Luga Port Company chairman, in the presence of the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin. Gulftainer and its partner want the Russian gateway terminal at Ust-Luga to be able to handle 170 million tonnes of cargo when it is fully developed.
