Ukraine within the framework of the meeting Ukraine – USA – European Commission – Romania – Moldova in Romanian Galati identified among the priority areas of work to increase Ukrainian exports the realization of the potential of the Danube and checkpoints on the border with Romania, said Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov.
“Today in Romanian Galati within the framework of the meeting Ukraine – USA – European Commission – Romania – Moldova worked on ways to increase Ukrainian exports. The Romanian part of the Danube in conditions of limited navigation is important for the reorientation of exports,” he wrote in Facebook.
According to him, the key areas of work are the acceleration of the passage of ships through the channels, increasing the capacity of the Sulina channel and the organization of additional places for the raid transshipment of ships near the Romanian port of Constanta.
Deputy Prime Minister noted that for the realization of these plans investments are needed. To attract them, work with European partners is underway, in particular, on the inclusion of the Ukrainian part of the Danube in the maps of the Trans-European Network of Inland Navigation Routes (TEN-T).
“This is one of the important conditions for the full-fledged operation of business on the Ukrainian Danube transportation market,” he stressed.
Kubrakov added that work is also underway with the Romanian side on the full-fledged launch of freight transportation at the road checkpoints on the border with Romania “Krasnoyilsk – Vicovu de Sus” and “Diakivtsi – Rakovets”. There are plans to increase the capacity of “Porubnoye – Siret” by at least 20% and to open two more new checkpoints, the report said.
In the railway transportation direction, active work is being carried out both in the Romanian and Moldovan directions, the deputy prime minister said. He recalled the resumption of the passenger trains’ movement on the border with Romania on the Rakhiv-Delovoye-Valia-Visheului section, as well as the works on the resumption of the passenger traffic at the Teresva border crossing point.
As it was reported at the meeting of the Exporters’ Office at UZ, a number of measures are also planned to increase the volume of cargo transshipment in the direction of the port “Izmail”. In particular, the reconstruction of dead-end tracks No. 8 and No. 9 at the station “Izmail” is planned by the end of the year. It is envisaged that UZ will perform the works at the expense of the investor. In 2024 it is planned to build an additional extraction track parallel to the existing No. 13 in the park “Izmail-Portovyi”. In addition, it is planned to build two marshalling tracks between tracks #11 and #15. There are plans to electrify the Artsiz-Izmail line with a length of 202 km.
“All our actions are aimed at achieving one goal – to provide as many opportunities as possible for Ukrainian exporters,” Kubrakov emphasized.
Deputy Prime Minister expressed gratitude to US sanctions coordinator Jim O’Brien, US Ambassador to Ukraine Brigitte Brink, European Commission Director General for Transport Magda Kopczynska, Romanian Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Sorin Grindian and Moldovan Minister of Agro-politics Vladimir Balea for their support.
He also recalled that recent Russian attacks on Ukraine’s port infrastructure destroyed more than 200,000 tons of grain.
Ukraine has completed dredging of the mouth of the Bystroe River Danube, bringing the draught of vessels at the section from the 0th kilometer of the mouth of the Bystroe River to the 77th kilometer of the Kiliya mouth to 6.5 meters, the Ministry of Restoration said on Friday.
According to its release, the section from the 77th kilometer to the 116th kilometer of the Kili estuary has a passing draft of 7 meters, whereas at the beginning of the full-scale intrusion, the maximum draft was only 3.9 meters.
“This is the first time we have been able to increase the allowable draught of vessels under independent Ukraine. Thanks to this we will be able to provide more efficient and safe navigation between the Black Sea and the Danube River, as well as increase the cargo flow through the Danube ports,” the report quotes Deputy Prime Minister – Head of the Ministry of Reconstruction Alexander Kubrakov as saying.
He added that since March 2022, transshipment of cargo in the ports of Izmail, Reni and Ust-Dunaisk has increased by three times. In general, more than 17 million tons of products, including more than 11 million tons of food products were exported from them.
According to the department, an increase in the draft for the passage of ships through the mouth of the “Bystroe” to the specified level became possible thanks to the elimination of the consequences of drift, the removal of sediment from the soil, the elimination of rollovers and the restoration of passport characteristics within the water areas of sea ports of Ukraine.
As reported, the passage of ships through the mouth of the “Bystroe” was opened on July 9, 2022 after the liberation of the Snake Island from the occupants.
The Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company (UDP) is launching the Danube Grain Route project due to the disruption of the “grain initiative” by Russia, UDP CEO Dmitry Moskalenko said on his Facebook page.
“Back in the summer, we assumed that Russia could at any moment try to disrupt the Grain Initiative. Therefore, we persistently and systematically developed our Danube Grain Route project,” Moskalenko explained.
According to him, UDP has invested in the creation of its own transshipment of grain and agreed with the Romanian partners – the TTS group of companies – on a faster and more efficient transshipment scheme in the port of Constanta.
Among the advantages of the new grain project at the first stage, Moskalenko noted that due to the faster loading and unloading process, the average caravan turnaround time will be reduced by about 30%. As a result, cargo owners will not have to bear financial losses due to long queues near the terminal.
In addition, the Director General of the UDP predicts that in the future the barge caravan will be able to carry out up to two trips per month due to the equipping of ships with online control systems, video surveillance and an increase in the number of navigators in the crew.
Moskalenko also said that at the second stage of the project, it is planned to build new barges, to increase the “tonnage” capabilities and modernize traction – a major overhaul of the self-propelled fleet with the replacement of engines.
As reported with reference to the data of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, in just three months of the implementation of the Grain Initiative, 422 ships from Ukrainian seaports exported about 10 million tons of agricultural products. This volume could be 30-40% more if Russia did not block inspections in the Bosphorus.
On the afternoon of October 31, the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said that without the participation of the Russian Federation, the export of Ukrainian grain would hardly be feasible. At the same time, he noted that from now on the grain deal acquires a “risky and non-guaranteed character.”
The Mariupol Investment Group (MIG, UTA Group), which owned the UkrTransAgro sea terminal in Mariupol before the Russian military invasion, has resumed trading agricultural products through the Danube ports.
The grain trader in the current 2022/2023 marketing year (MY, July-June) has already shipped 3.14 thousand tons of wheat on barges, according to the organization’s Facebook page.
“For our company, this is an important event, since we are returning to business after losing access to the territories and the terminal itself in Mariupol (…) Now we are at the stage of formation and improvement of business processes, which will allow us to reach the design capacity for shipping up to 15 thousand tons per month. We hope that soon we will gather our former team of specialists, who are now in different parts of Ukraine,” UTA Group quotes its head Pavel Plotnikov.
The company clarified that in July this year it rented a granary with a capacity of 5 thousand tons in order to accumulate agricultural products for further export, while in the first month of operation it processed a total of 5.5 thousand tons of wheat.
As reported, the marine terminal of UkrTransAgro LLC (Mariupol, Donetsk region), which is part of the Mariupol Investment Group (MIG, UTA Group), stopped working immediately after the Russian military invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
UkrTransAgro LLC and UTA Logistic LLC are part of MIG, founded in 2007 by Oleksandr Savchuk to consolidate assets. Later, Savchuk divided the management of the main (Azovmash group) and promising (MIG) business areas.
In 2010 MIG was transformed into the management company “Mariupol Investment Group”.
MIG manages the Azov Shipyard, UkrTransAgro LLC, UTA Logistic LLC, Maritime Logistics LLC, Martlet LLC, TRK TV-7 LLC.
Transshipment of grain and oilseeds through the sea terminal of UkrTransAgro LLC in 2020/2021 MY decreased by 39% compared to 2019/2020 MY – to 430 thousand tons from 711 thousand tons.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS, Danube, INVESTMENT GROUP, MARIUPOL, PORTS
