Seaports in 2022 transshipped 59 million tons of cargo, providing 54% of exports from the country, compared to the indicator in 2021 – 153.7 million tons – a drop of 2.6 times, the Administration of Ukrainian Sea Ports (AMPU) said in a message on Facebook.
According to it, 47.8 million tons of cargo was shipped for export, which is almost 2.5 times less than in pre-war 2021, while imports were almost 4 times less – 6.2 million tons.
It is specified that the turnover of cargo of the Odessa port in comparison with indicators of 2021 decreased from 22.56 million tons to 7.69 million tons, port “Pivdenniy” – from 53.47 million tons to 15.28 million tons, “Chernomorsk” – from 25.63 million tons to 11.8 million tons. – from 25.63 million tons to 11.76 million tons.
Ukrainian ports mostly transshipped grain cargoes, which provided almost half of the total volume – 28.8 million tons, bulk cargoes amounted to 4.8 million tons.
AMPU emphasized the great importance of the agreement on the “grain initiative”, which allowed to unblock the work of ports “Big Odessa”, and if it were not for the actions of Russia, which blocks the “grain corridor”, the performance of the agreement could have been higher, the report said.
Administration specified that 614 vessels with 16 million tons of agricultural products for 40 countries have been sent for export within the framework of “grain initiative” since August 1. From the port of Odessa – 188 ships with 4.2 million tons, from the port of Chernomorsk – 261 vessels with 6.4 million tons, from Pivdenniy port – 165 vessels with 5.5 million tons.
One third of the vessels – 281 with 7.2 million tons of cargo was bound for Asia, and slightly less – 246 vessels with 6.8 million tons – for Europe, while 87 vessels with 2.1 million tons headed for Africa.
AMPU said that 2022 was planned as the year of the port infrastructure development, but the war has radically changed plans, and with the blocking of most Ukrainian ports, the administration focused on the development of transport logistics of the Danube region.
As a result, the volume of cargo handling in the port of Reni has grown to 6.82 million tons from 1.37 million tons in 2021, port Izmail – to 8.89 million tons from 4 million tons, Ust-Dunaysk – to 785 thousand tons from 64 thousand tons, which were the best results for all the years of Independence.
It was possible to achieve better results due to the development of public-private partnership and maximum business deregulation, the report says, as well as due to the dredging works, which were carried out for the first time in many years near the deep-water berths of Izmail and Reni. The total volume of operational dredging in port Izmail was 710 thousand cubic meters, in port Reni – 130 thousand cubic meters with a total volume of 280 thousand cubic meters, which is planned to be done until the end of II quarter of 2023. Dredging works were carried out by AMPU’s own forces with the participation of branch “Dredging fleet”.
AMPU noted that despite the fact that the Danube ports attracted all the available facilities for cargo handling, there is a potential for development in 2023. It will be realized by modernization of port infrastructure, construction of new terminals, continuation of dredging works and attraction of investments.
