The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide up to $50 million loan to JV Nibulon LLC to support the expansion and modernization of Nibulon’s grain logistics infrastructure in 2018-2019.
EBRD Senior Adviser Anton Usov told Interfax-Ukraine that the project was approved by the bank’s board at a Wednesday meeting.
According to the materials of the bank, the project includes the construction of river terminals, transshipment crane, river fleet and Mykolaiv terminal enhancement.
The project will support Nibulon’s strategy aimed mainly at the expansion and optimisation of its river grain logistics facilities in order to increase grain trading volumes reducing the share of road and rail transportation, which will lead to the improvement of profitability, efficiency, as well as to the reduction of environmental footprint.
The total cost of the project is near $140 million. Technical Cooperation funds are provided by Japan-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund to partially cover project’s external legal costs.
Nibulon LLC was established in 1991. It is one of the largest operators in the grain market of the country. It has elevators with a total capacity of about 2 million tonnes, as well as its own transshipment terminal with a capacity of 5 million tonnes in Mykolaiv.
Nibulon cultivates 82,000 hectares of land, owns and operates the second largest network of internal elevators and river terminals, a sea terminal in Mykolaiv. The company exports mainly maize, wheat and barley to more than 20 countries. The annual volume of exports reaches 4.5 million tonnes.
