Mining company Ferrexpo with assets in Ukraine in January-June this year due to the blockage of sea ports by Russia was able to supply pellets only to European countries and Turkey.
According to the semi-annual report of the company on Wednesday, Ferrexpo in the first half of the year-2023 all 100% of the realized products supplied to Europe, including Turkey, while in January-June-2022 this share was 92%, in the first half of the year-2022 – 79%.
Earlier it was noted that in H1-2022 the company increased the share of sales to Europe, including Turkey to 79% (in IH-2021 – 60%), Northeast Asia – to 5% (8%). Deliveries to the Middle East and North Africa were absent at that period (2%), as well as to North America (2%). Meanwhile, sales to Southeast Asia (SEA), including China, fell to 16% from 29%.
According to the report, the group was mainly limited to exports to Europe either by rail or inland waterways via the Danube River in the current year. It produced 1.967 million tons of pellets, operating one to two of four pelletizing lines, each capable of producing about 3 to 3.5 million tons of pellets per year, depending on the product types produced.
As at the end of July, the group operates one pelletizing line to reduce existing product inventories.
C1 production cost in H1-2023 was $71/tonne, down from H1-2022 ($85/tonne) due to the hryvnia devaluation in H2-2022 and lower prices for some consumables and the positive effect of energy savings. At the same time, iron ore prices in H1-2023 on the global market decreased by 5%, the outlook for the third quarter is slightly worse due to weak demand in Asia and increased iron ore supplies from Brazil and Australia.
Total selling and distribution costs in H1 2023 were $74 million (H1-22 – $147 million), mainly due to lower shipping volumes in the period due to the closure of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports in February 2022 and higher alternative freight costs that followed access to European customers. C3 freight rates declined 26% year-on-year to average $20/tonne in 1H 2023 as a result of lower global energy prices and lack of demand from Brazilian miners.
It is also stated that previously the group’s maritime logistics routes represented the cheapest and most efficient way to deliver products to customers. However, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the group has had to adapt and establish new logistics corridors and relationships with logistics service providers and port operators. These routes rely heavily on rail, where capacity is limited and demand is high, including from businesses and industries, and transportation by barge is also limited and costly.
“The Group continues to explore its logistics options and has made progress in reducing transportation time and improving efficiency where possible,” the report said.
It also reminds that rail tariffs in July-2022 increased by 70% for 20 types of cargo, even when the group uses its own railcars.
During the first six months of 2023, the average monthly iron ore price remained in the range of $100 – $200/tonne, royalties for iron ore mining are charged to the group at a rate of 5% in this period.
Ferrexpo is an iron ore company with assets in Ukraine.
Ferrexpo owns 100% of Poltava GOK PJSC, 100% of Yeristovskiy GOK LLC and 99.9% of Belanovskiy GOK LLC.
The total volume of operational dredging performed by technical fleet of Delta-Pilot branch of state-owned enterprise (SOE) Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority exceeded 500,000 cubic meters from the beginning of 2020, which is more than 30% of the annual plan, the press service of the Sea Ports Authority said on Monday, April 27.
The authority said that there was a scheduled repair of most of the branch’s technical fleet vessels in 2019. Three Rion dredging convoys were docked, while Inhulsky and Meotida dredging pumps were classified. It limited the dredging volume at the level of 824,700 cubic meters for 2019, but made it possible to establish plans for operational dredging by the own fleet at 1.6 million cubic meters for 2020.
In 2020, dredging was provided on the Buzko-Dniprovsko-Lymansky sea canal, Kherson sea canal, the sea access channel of the Danube-Black Sea deep water canal, the access channels of ports of Mariupol and Berdiansk and on the access channel of Dnistrovsko-Tsarehradsky.
Operational dredging is planned by technical fleet of Delta-Pilot branch in water areas and on the sea access channels of the ports of Odesa, Pivdenny, Mariupol, as well as on Kherson sea canal and on the sea access channel of the Danube-Black Sea deep water canal by the end of 2020.
The dredging fleet of Delta-Pilot branch of the of SOE Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority consists of three dredging pumps (Inhulsky, Meotida, Tylihulsky), as well as a dredging convoy as part of multi-bucket dredger Rion, two sludge vessels (Krymska-3, Krymska-9), and a MZ-318 multicat (an anchor handling vessel).
Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA) is starting exploitation dredging works at Berdyansk seaport in an amount of 1.85 million cubic meters. As the USPA press service said, Dunay dredger to maintain the passport depths has already come to Berdiansk port.
“The start of operational dredging is an important event for the Berdiansk seaport. A decrease in depth negatively affects the competitiveness of our port and the efficiency of port operators. The contractor has a large-scale task: to dredge with a total volume of 1.85 million cubic meters. The first dredger has already begun work in the port’s water area, we expect that in September the contractor’s fleet will begin to work in full force in the Berdiansk port,” a press service of USPA regional office in Berdiansk quotes its chief Oleksandr Barchan as saying.
At the end of May 2019, USPA for the restoration of passport depths in the port of Berdiansk, following a tender in the ProZorro electronic procurement system, signed an agreement with Azimut Specialized Technical Bureau LLC. According to USPA, the savings following the results of the tender amounted to more than UAH 75 million.
According to the agreement, the total amount of works to be performed by the contractor in the port of Berdiansk is 1.85 million cubic meters. It is necessary to carry out major works with an amount of 1.39 million cubic meters on the access channel, and 466,000 cubic meters in the port water area. The contractor should complete half of the contract by the end of 2019.
On a par with contractor’s fleet, Meotida dredger continues its works at Berdiansk port operating on the certain parts of the access canal.
As reported, in 2019 USPA plans to carry exploitation dredging at seven seaports: Mariupol, Berdiansk, Izmail, Chornomorsk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kherson, and two major dredging projects at Chornomorsk and Yuzhny ports.
The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority plans to announce tenders to transfer Olvia stevedoring company and Kherson maritime merchandise port in concession in May 2019, Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority Head Raivis Veckagans said at a briefing at the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine on Thursday.
“An important process in 2019 will be our concession projects. We plan to set up a tender commission for project evaluation in February. In March, we plan that the tender documents and criteria for evaluating potential bidders will be approved, and in May we plan to announce the tender,” he said.
Veckagans expects that by autumn, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority will sign the first concession agreements with public stevedoring companies.
“Also this year we plan to complete work on the feasibility studies for the following concession projects: the railway ferry complex at Chornomorsk and the public stevedoring company at the Yuzhny seaport.
As reported, the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine was expecting to conduct tender procedures for the transfer of Olvia stevedoring company and Kherson maritime merchandise port in concession in March-April and sign contracts with the winners of the tenders in May-June 2019.
The specialized fleet of Delta-Pilot, the branch of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, almost doubled dredging in 2018 compared with 2017, to 1.341 million cubic meters. More than a third of this volume (497,300 cubic meters) is the result of the operation of the Meotid dredger in Mariupol and Berdiansk ports of the Sea of Azov. Last year, operational dredging was also carried out in the port of Izmail, on the Kherson marine and Bug-Dnieper-Limansky canals, as well as on the Danube-Black Sea approach canal.
Currently the specialized fleet of the Delta-Pilot branch is undergoing planned preparation for new navigation: the classification and dock repairs are carried out at all ships.
Ship repairs are scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2019 and, upon termination of spawning (June 1–15), they will proceed to the implementation of operational dredging.
As reported, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority announced two tenders for dredging in Berdiansk and Mariupol ports totaling 1.85 million cubic meters and 1.9 million cubic meters. The expected cost of work is UAH 430 million without VAT and UAH 460 million without VAT respectively.
The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority and Port of Antwerp International/APEC (Belgium) have signed a memorandum of understanding. The document provides for a detailed analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of Ukrainian seaports and further interaction in order to attract investment in their development. “Experts from Port Antwerp International will conduct a SWOT-analysis of the situation in Ukrainian seaports and will formulate a plan of partnership assistance in implementation of the development strategy of Ukrainian seaports,” Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority Head Raivis Veckagans said.
He said that trainings for specialists of the Ukrainian authority start this week in the areas of pricing for port services, work within the framework of port landlord model, concession project implementation, as well as the peculiarities of the interaction of environmental services in the port.
Managing director of Port of Antwerp International and the APEC Port Training Center Kristof Waterschoot said that the Black Sea region and, in particular, the seaports of Ukraine are now at the center of attention of international experts.
The Ukrainian authority also said that Port of Antwerp International is acting internationally, not only as a consultant, but also as an investor. In particular, the company invested $10 million in Porto do Aç (Brazil) in 2017 and more than $2 million in the port of San Pedro (West Africa) in 2016.
“Further cooperation with Ukrainian ports will also consider the possibility of Belgian and international experts participation in attracting investments and implementing projects on development of port infrastructure in the seaports of Ukraine,” the authority said.
