The State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU) has announced a privatization auction for the sale of the integral property complex of the State Enterprise Belgorod-Dniester Commercial Sea Port (SCP) on March 21 at a starting price of UAH 183.9 million, the press service of the agency reports.
Last year, the Fund tried several times to sell this property: first, it put it up for sale on March 3 for UAH 187.57 million, then lowered the starting price to UAH 93.78 million, the auction was won by Ukrdoninvest LLC of businessman Vitaly Kropachev, but it then refused to buy at the stage of agreeing on the terms of the sale agreement, and further attempts to sell it in June with a price reduction to UAH 92.46 million failed due to the lack of bids.
Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi ICC is an international universal transportation hub specializing in transshipment of timber, bulk, construction and grain cargoes, as well as iron ore pellets and metal products. Transshipment is carried out both by land and sea vessels and in the opposite direction.
According to the report, the asset is located on a territory of 64.4 hectares. It consists of 59 hectares of the main production area of the port of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi and 5.4 hectares of the Buhaz port point located in the village of Zatoka. The total area of buildings is 31.3 thousand square meters.
Ships call at the port through the 1.5 km long approach channel of the offshore part of the Dniester-Tsarhorod estuary and the 14.5 km long Dniester-Liman part. The depth of the approach channel is 3.0 m (3.5-4.5 m according to the passport).
The port has its own railroad tracks, as well as engineering networks: water supply, heating, 0.4 kW cable lines and 10 kW high-voltage lines.
According to the SPF, the auction terms require the buyer to pay off wage and budget arrears. As of September 30, 2023, this total debt amounted to UAH 105.5 million. The buyer also has to pay VAT in the amount of 20% of the final value of the property.
If the auction is successful, the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi ICC will become the second major port infrastructure facility to be sold on the Prozorro platform since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion.
As reported earlier, the SPF sold the integral property complex of the Ust-Dunay port for UAH 200 million on the Prozorro electronic platform. During the auction, its price tripled. The winner was Elixir Ukraine LLC.
A new privatization auction for the sale of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Commercial Sea Port (NCSP, Odesa region) is scheduled for March 13. The starting price of the property has been halved from UAH 187.57 million to UAH 93.78 million, according to the property’s page on the State Property Fund’s website. According to the published information, the acceptance of bids from buyers will end at 20:00 on March 12, and the next day at 12:30 an English auction will be held with a minimum bid step of UAH 937,871.2.
As reported, the first auction for the sale of the port with a starting price of UAH 187.57 million scheduled for March 3 did not take place, the probable reason for the failure of the auction is the absence of at least two bids.
Earlier, the Fund noted that the port is unprofitable, but since 2022, the company “plays an important role in ensuring global food security as a logistics center for ports on the Danube.” According to the head of the SPF, Rustem Umerov, the port has great potential for the development of Ukrainian exports and needs investment in development.
According to the SPF, in 2019-2021, the net loss of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi ICC amounted to approximately UAH 23.5-28.5 million, and in January-September 2022 – UAH 2.9 million. The volume of sales of products (works, services) for the period of 2019-nine months of 2022 amounted to UAH 80.8 million, including UAH 9.2 million for export.
The total overdue accounts payable amounted to UAH 104.6 million, including UAH 13.66 million in salary arrears. As of December 1, 2022, the debt to the State Tax Service amounted to UAH 59.6 million, including UAH 57.9 million in tax debt and UAH 1.7 million in penalties.
The terms of the port sale stipulate that the port must pay off its wage and budget arrears within six months in the amount that will be available as of the date of transfer of ownership of the privatization object. In addition, during the same period (six months), the employees of the privatized enterprise may not be dismissed at the initiative of the buyer or its authorized bodies, except in cases where the employee commits actions provided for in paragraphs 3, 4, 7, 8 of Part 1 of Articles 40 and 41 of the Labor Code.
Since April 1, 2022, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi seaport has been used as a logistics center for ports on the Danube. It receives cargo by truck and then ships it in railcars. In May of the same year, the company started shipping grain, transshipping iron ore pellets and transshipping metal products. In the six months after the reopening, cargo transshipment at the MTP increased 100 times compared to 2021. The port received more than 10 thousand trucks and shipped 4 thousand railcars by rail, which significantly eased the load on the country’s road infrastructure to the ports of Izmail and Reni (Odesa region). All products were exported.
Founded in 1971, Belgorod-Dniester Commercial Sea Port specializes in transshipment of timber, mineral fertilizers, iron ore pellets, metal products, and grain cargo. According to its charter, its core business is auxiliary water transport services.
The port’s balance sheet includes nine vessels of the port fleet, 47 units of road and 4 units of rail transport, 18 portal cranes and special equipment: 41 forklifts, four excavators, three bulldozers, a pneumatic crane, and a compressor. A part of the port’s property (28 items, including real estate and vehicles) is leased with the expiration date of the existing lease agreements being 6.09.2027. The port has six registered land plots with a total area of 65.63 thousand hectares.
According to the decision of the Odesa Customs Service, a temporary customs control zone has been established on the territory of the port facilities.
Vessels enter the port through the 1.5 km long approach channel of the offshore part of the Dniester-Tsaregorod estuary and the 14.5 km long Dniester-Liman part. The depth of the approach channel is 3 m (passport depth is 3.4-4.5 m). The single property complex is located on the territory of 64.4 hectares at the following addresses: 81 Shabska Street, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district, Zatoka village, 93 Zolotyi Bereg Street, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district, Zatoka village, 1 Primorskaya Street.
Earlier, the SPF sold the integral property complex of the Ust-Dunay port for UAH 200 million on the Prozorro electronic platform. During the auction, its price tripled.
State-owned enterprise (SOE) Ukrainian Sea Port Authority in January-October 2018 increased dredging works using own fleet by 13% year-over-year, to 1.3 million cubic meters (mcm). “However, the volume of works to be carried out is larger. Only in 2018 we announced tender to select subcontractors in the ProZorro e-procurement system under seven projects with a total volume of over 5.5 mcm,” the press service of the authority reported.
The Ukrainian Sea Port Authority plans to double dredging works at Ukrainian ports in 2019, bringing the volume of projects to 16.335 million cubic meters.
The Ukrainian Sea Port Authority is a SOE that oversees the operation of 13 seaports on the territory of Ukraine. Founded in 2013, it owns strategic facilities for port infrastructure, which include seaport areas, hydraulic structures, berths and public infrastructure such as approach roads and utility networks.
The SOE provides for the functioning of seaports, charges port dues and provides general maintenance services. Each port has a branch of the authority, which acts as the administration of the port. 80% of the authority’s revenue is denominated in U.S. dollars, whereas in expenditures the hryvnia component dominates.
The Ukrainian Sea Port Authority plans to double dredging works at Ukrainian ports in 2019, bringing the volume of projects to 16.335 million cubic meters, the press service of the authority reported after Dredging day 2018 held in Odesa. “This figure reflects the amount of work that the Sea Port Authority plans to start in 2019 compared to the amount of work that was planned to start in 2018,” the press service of the authority told Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, the authority said that the consolidated data on the implementation of the dredging plan for the current year are now being collected, work on individual facilities is proceeding as part of the plan, and for some of them even ahead of schedule.
The plans for 2019 include the continuation of dredging at the ports of Chornomorsk and Yuzhny (both Odesa region), including work to dredge the first boot basin of the Sukhy estuary of the Chornomorsk port in the amount of 1.1 million cubic meters with a planned period of four months, as well as in Yuzhny port (second and fourth launch complexes) in the amount of 6.339 million cubic meters with a planned implementation period of 21 months.
To maintain the passport depths, it is planned to carry out work in the amount of 8.88 million cubic meters in the ports: Kherson, Reni, Izmail, Odesa, Berdiansk, Mariupol, as well as on the Buzko-Dniprovsky-Lymansky canal; Kyiv, Kamianske, Kaniv, Kremenchuk, Dniprodzerzhynsk, Dniprovske and Kakhovka water reservoirs.
State-owned enterprise (SOE) Ukrainian Sea Port Authority and the TIS Group have signed a memorandum of understanding, providing for the implementation of infrastructure projects at the Yuzhny seaport (Odesa region), according to a posting on the website of the Infrastructure Ministry. The memorandum envisages the uniting of efforts of the SOE and the private company to develop Yuzhny port’s infrastructure.
The authority seeks to conduct dredging works in the internal canal leading to the water area of berths of the TIS Group (from berth 18th to 22nd), a water approach to the U-turn area and a part of the operation water areas of berths 21st and 22nd to reach the designed depth of 16 meters.
In turn, TIS will conduct dredging works near its berths: 18, 19 and 20 to 19 meters and 21 and 22 – to 16 meters. After these dredging works, TIS plans to do its best to boost cargo handling by 10-15 million tonnes in 10 years.
The Ukrainian Sea Port Authority and China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd. (CHEC) on April 6, 2018 signed two contracts for carrying out dredging works at the Chornomorsk seaport (Odesa region): one document envisages dredging works in the approach canal and the second one – in the water area of the first boot basin of Sukhy estuary.
An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that the signing ceremony was held with participation of Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan, Ukrainian Sea Port Authority Head Raivis Veckagans, Head of the administration of the Chornomorsk branch of the Ukrainian Sea Port Authority Viacheslav Voloshyn, Head of the administration of the Yuzhny branch of the Ukrainian Sea Port Authority Maksym Shyrokov, Head of the representative office of CHEC in Ukraine Lin Tao, representatives of the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine and journalists.
“The project of dredging the water area of the Chornomorsk seaport provides for an increase in the depths of water approaches and the operational water area of the port to 16 meters and will allow more efficient functioning of one of the largest seaports in Ukraine,” Omelyan said.
He thanked Veckagans who, in his words, together with the team, created all the necessary conditions for attracting both national and foreign companies with a world-wide reputation to participate in tenders.
“Traditionally, the contract organization was chosen based on the results of the tender in the ProZorro e-procurement system, which ensures absolute transparency and openness of the process and excludes the possibility of any corruption. Thus, according to the results of the tender, we have saved more than UAH 40 million, and the winner is China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd.,” Omelyan said.
As a result of the tender, which took place on March 13, the savings amounted to 10% of the expected value.
The cost of the project is UAH 404 million.
“The project should be implemented before the end of 2018. Reconstruction of the maritime approach canal and the water area of the first boot basin will further allow for the reconstruction of the berths of the Chornomorsk port and the dredging works in the operating area of the berths,” Veckagans said.
