One of the largest grain market operators in Ukraine, JV Nibulon LLC (Mykolaiv), has received the second batch of 10 new hopper cars for grain transportation from USAID’s Economic Support for Ukraine project, the company’s press service reported.
“In today’s conditions, it is extremely important for companies working in ports, receiving and sending cargo, to feel international support. Hopper cars, as evidence of this support, will travel throughout Ukraine. So, thanks to the assistance of the USAID project, exporters will be able to retain highly professional staff at blocked river infrastructure facilities and offer better purchase prices to agricultural producers,” the press service quoted Nibulon’s Director of Government Relations and Sustainable Development Michael Rizak as saying.
According to the report, the USAID project will transfer a total of 50 modern hopper cars for Nibulon’s needs, each of which can carry up to 70 tons of grain. They were manufactured at the Experimental Mechanical Plant “Karpaty” (Lviv Oblast) and immediately sent for loading to the grain trader’s branch nearest to production – “Smotrich” near Kamenets-Podilskyi in Khmelnytskyi Oblast. From here they will go to ports in the Danube region.
“To compensate for lost river logistics, which reached 4.2 million tons of grain before the war, Nibulon needs one route train of 50 wagons for each of the blocked river ports. With the railcars from the USAID project, the company will have 212 railcars, which is about half of the need,” the press service of the grain trader specified.
Assistance to agricultural producers and infrastructure companies is part of the Agricultural Sustainability Initiative in Ukraine, implemented by the U.S. Agency for International Development. It is aimed at helping Ukraine increase the potential for grain production, storage, transportation and export.
JV Nibulon LLC was established in 1991. Before the Russian military invasion, the grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and complexes for receiving agricultural crops, capacity for one-time storage of 2.25 million tons of agricultural products, a fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugboats), and owned the Nikolaev shipyard.
“Nibulon” before the war cultivated 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries.
The grain trader exported the maximum 5.64 million tons of agricultural products in 2021, reaching record shipments to foreign markets in August – 0.7 million tons, in the fourth quarter – 1.88 million tons and in the second half of the year – 3.71 million tons.
Nibulon’s losses from the full-scale military invasion of the Russian Federation reached $400 mln. Currently, the grain trader is operating at 30% of its capacity, has created a special unit for demining agricultural land and has started production of the first vessel for demining international waterways at its shipyards in Mykolayiv.
The grain trader recently raised EUR27m from the Danish Export Investment Fund (EIFO) to increase the capacity of the Bessarabsky branch in Izmail, where an elevator and a flour mill will be built.
