USAID’s Economic Support for Ukraine project has purchased weighing equipment for weighing railroad and road transport and transferred it to one of the largest operators in Ukraine’s grain market, JV Nibulon LLC (Mykolaiv), the grain trader’s press service reported.
“Providing Nibulon’s elevators with modern weighing equipment will speed up weighing of road and rail transport, provide automation and restore previously cut off capacity to the Izmail investment project. Thanks to this, we expect to restore the capacity of supply chains and speed up operations on acceptance and shipment of grain products. Additional weighing complexes will increase the turnover in conditions of increased load on land transportation”, – said the director on interaction with authorities and issues of sustainable development of “Nibulon” Mikhail Rizak.
According to the company, the weighing equipment will be used at four elevators of the company – in Mykolayiv, Poltava and Cherkasy regions.
With the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, Nibulon was forced to reorient its export chains and compensate for the lack of river navigation on the international inland waterway E-40. The priority was the investment project of the river port in Izmail and strengthening the logistic potential of the company in the use of land routes, recalled the press service of the grain trader.
Currently, Nibulon uses combined routes that combine transportation by truck and transshipment by rail with subsequent transshipment to water transport in Izmail.
USAID’s assistance to agroexporters is part of the Agricultural Sustainability Initiative in Ukraine, which is implemented by the U.S. Agency for International Development. It aims to help Ukraine increase its capacity to produce, store, transport and export grain.
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 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.
Nibulon JV LLC (Mykolaiv), one of the largest operators in the Ukrainian grain market, and Scania Ukraine LLC have signed an agreement to purchase 30 Scania R450 trucks, the grain trader’s press service reports.
“The renewal of the fleet is an integral part of ensuring stable exports of Nibulon. In this case, we are talking about increasing the logistics potential for the transportation of grain by land,” the company wrote on Facebook on Monday.
The grain trader noted that due to the reorientation of export chains during the war and the almost complete loss of river navigation, Nibulon’s logistics business is forced to use combined routes, including grain transportation by truck.
“Nibulon has promised to minimize the load on the roads and minimize its environmental impact. Therefore, the grain is transported by trucks on a short arm to elevators with existing rail shipment capacities.
“Nibulon and Scania Ukraine have been cooperating since 2012. In 2022, Scania Ukraine supplied the grain trader with 15 Scania G400 Euro 5 tractors under the Scania SilverLine program, which includes the purchase of equipment on lease, a service contract, driver training, and a fleet monitoring system. The financing was provided by Scania Credit Ukraine, a member of the Scania Group.
The distribution company Scania Ukraine has been operating in the Ukrainian market since 1998 (before that, it had a representative office since 1993). It has nine service centers (including two of its own in Kyiv and Lviv region).
SCANIA is part of Volkswagen Truck & Bus GmbH and is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of trucks and buses over 16 tons. The company employs 46 thousand people and sells its products in more than 100 countries.
Nibulon JV LLC was established in 1991. It is one of the largest operators in the country’s grain market. It has elevator facilities with a total capacity of about 2 million tons, as well as its own transshipment terminal in Mykolaiv with a capacity of 5 million tons.
JV Nibulon LLC (Nikolaev), one of the largest operators on the grain market of Ukraine, attracted EUR27 million from the Export Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) to increase the capacity of the Bessarabian branch in Izmail, where an elevator and a flour mill will be built, the company’s press service said on Facebook.
“We are extremely impressed by the speed of decision-making and support from Denmark in these difficult times for the Ukrainian economy. We really need more and more such positive signals so that others can emulate them,” Nibulon CFO Olga Babanina said.
According to the grain trader, the raised funds will be used to build an elevator for simultaneous storage of 118.5 thousand tons of grain and high-tech modern mill with a capacity of 750 tons per day.
This infrastructural solution will allow Nibulon to increase its export capacity up to 300,000 tons per month and supply flour to the domestic market as well as serve the interests of the food security mission of UN World Food Program via the Danube ports, the company explained.
Besides, the company added that construction of the new production facilities will allow to increase the number of jobs in the region and employ 100 specialists.
As it was informed, the financing is carried out within the framework of social program of Danish Investment Fund, created for Ukraine. The launch of the program was announced in May during the Ukrainian Investment Forum in Copenhagen.
JV Nibulon LLC was founded in 1991. Before the Russian military invasion the grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and complexes for reception of agricultural crops, capacities for simultaneous storage of 2.25 mln tons of agro-industrial complex products, fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugboats) and owned Nikolaev Shipbuilding Plant.
“Nibulon” before the war worked 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries.
The grain trader exported a maximum of 5.64 million tons of agricultural products in 2021, reaching record volumes of deliveries 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 Russia’s full-scale invasion reached $400 million. The grain trader is currently operating at 30% of its capacity and has set up a special unit to clear farmland.
Nibulon” JV LLC (Mykolaiv), one of the largest operators at the grain market of Ukraine, in January-June 2023 transported by its own fleet from the branch “Bessarabskaya” (Izmail) to Constanta, Romania about 80 thousand tons, or 15% of the total shipments of the company during this period.
According to the grain trader’s website, this was made possible by the redeployment of the fleet from Nikolaev, which involved disassembly of the vessels, their transportation by land to the Danube and their subsequent reassembly at the Bessarabian branch. In total two port tugs “Nibulon-12” and “Nibulon-14”, tugs “Nibulon-3” and “Nibulon-11” and two handling machines Terex Fuch mhl 385 were transported this way.
The announcement indicates that the Nibulon also began providing tug, mooring and unmooring services for vessels on the Danube. In January-June 2023, the number of hours worked in this way increased 18-fold.
“In the spring, Nibulon was able to resume shipping on the Middle Dnieper. Now tugs “Nibulon-10”, “Hermes-2” and non-self-propelled barges UAK-1, UAK-2, UAK-3, UAK-4 work here, and the branch “Kremenchugskaya” acts as a central transshipment hub that receives grain from water transport and reloads it into the cars”, – stressed the press service of grain trader and added that during April and May 2023 more than 15 thousand tons of grain were transported this way.
It is noted that the shipping company of the grain trader plans to increase the volume of services to third parties in Ismail, as well as to increase the volume of traffic to Constanta by optimizing the routes.
“The experience of sea routes in winter and spring allows the company to choose exactly sea routes instead of the Danube, which affects the speed of the fleet,” summarized the “Nibulon”.
JV Nibulon LLC was founded in 1991. Before the Russian military invasion, grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and complexes to receive the crops, the capacity for one-time storage of 2.25 million tons of agro products, a fleet of 83 ships (including 23 tugs) and owned the Nikolayev shipyard.
“Nibulon” before the war worked 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries.
The grain trader exported a maximum of 5.64 million tons of agricultural products in 2021, reaching a record volume of deliveries to foreign markets in August – 0.7 million tons, the fourth quarter – 1.88 million tons and in the second half of the year – 3.71 million tons.
Nibulon LLC (Mykolaiv), one of the largest operators at the grain market of Ukraine, intends to build an elevator and a high-tech mill at its Bessarabian branch (port Izmail) to increase the shipment of grain from the record 170,000 tons per month to potentially 300,000 tons, the company said on Facebook.
“To realize this potential, Nibulon is considering building a full-fledged elevator at the location, designed for simultaneous storage of 118.5 thousand tons of grain, as well as a high-tech modern mill with a capacity of 750 tons per day,” said Michael Rizak, director of government relations and sustainable development issues of the company during the visit of the US Ambassador Bridgette Brink to the branch.
Nibulon notes that the new mill will be able to work both for the needs of domestic consumers in Ukraine and serve the food security mission of the UN World Food Program (WFP).
“Now WFP uses the processing facilities of Turkey, sending there Ukrainian grain on the “grain corridor”. But it is also possible to transport ready-made flour, bran and other products of grain processing from Ukraine,” Rizak explained.
JV Nibulon LLC was founded in 1991. Before the Russian military invasion, grain trader had 27 transshipment terminals and complexes for reception of crops, capacities for one-time storage of 2.25 million tons of agricultural products, fleet of 83 vessels (including 23 tugboats), as well as owned Nikolaev shipyard.
“Nibulon” before the war worked 82 thousand hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to more than 70 countries.
The grain trader exported a maximum of 5.64 million tons of agricultural products in 2021, reaching record volumes of deliveries to foreign markets in August – 0.7 million tons, the fourth quarter – 1.88 million tons and in the second half of the year – 3.71 million tons.
According to Opendatabot, Nibulon’s revenues fell almost 2.7 times to 15.18 million hryvnias in 2022, and its net loss was 10.53 billion hryvnias versus a net profit of 1.34 billion hryvnias a year earlier.
JV Nibulon LLC (Mykoliav) intends to replace technological flows at its operating transshipment terminal for grains and oilseeds in Mykoliav and modernize the aspiration (ventilation) system, which will minimize the impact on the environment, increase the emergency safety of production, improve working conditions, fire safety and industrial sanitation.
Information about this is stipulated in the unified register of environmental impact assessment of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine.
The project involves the installation of additional 24 aspiration systems at the terminal, replacement of belt conveyors with chain conveyors, installation of fire-fighting dry pipes and explosion arresters for transport elevators – devices to prevent an explosion in an enclosed space.
At the moment, Nibulon is considering two options for installing the aspiration system: using dust collectors of the sleeve type or cyclone type.
The company said that its transshipment terminal is located on a plot with a total area of 15.86 hectares, which it owns.
