In August this year, the cargo turnover of Ukrainian ports amounted to 7 million tons, which is more than twice as much as in 2023, when it was recorded at 3.3 million tons, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA) reported on its Facebook page.
“The leaders of cargo turnover are grain and ore cargo – 4 million tons (against 2.3 million tons in 2023) and 1.2 million tons (against 195 thousand tons in 2023), respectively,” the agency said.
At the same time, the cargo turnover through the Ukrainian sea corridor in August amounted to 5.9 mln tons, of which 3.6 mln tons were the products of Ukrainian farmers.
In total, in January-August 2024, Ukrainian ports handled almost 67 million tons of cargo, compared to 37.7 million tons in the same period a year earlier. The USPA summarized that 7769 vessels were handled compared to 9732 last year.
The cargo turnover of the Danube Region seaports in January-November 2023 reached 29.4 million tons, which is more than double the figure for the same period in 2022 (14.5 million tons), said Yuriy Lytvyn, Chairman of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, at the final meeting of the team of the Ministry of Community, Territorial and Infrastructure Development on Tuesday.
According to Lytvyn, the number of vessels handled in the Danube ports in 11 months of this year increased by 68.6% – from 8,944 thousand to 13,045 thousand, while in 11 months of 2021 there were 3,252 thousand.
The Head of USPA clarified that almost half of the cargo turnover – 14.1 million tons – was grain, another 2.6 million tons – vegetable oil, 1.9 million tons – oil products, 1.7 million tons – ore, and another 9 million tons – other cargo.
He also noted that in 11 months of 2013, 23 new terminals and 20 new transshipment points were opened in the Danube ports, and the number of pilots increased from 14 to 78.
The conference noted that the Ukrainian corridor under the control of the Ukrainian Navy in the Black Sea ports of Greater Odesa (Odesa, Chornomorsk, Pivdennyi), which became fully operational in August-September, handled 6.4 million tons of cargo as of November, including 4 million tons in November.
Lytvyn added that in the first 11 months of 2023, all Ukrainian ports handled 52.8 million tons of cargo, up from 45.6 million tons in 2022, including 47.9 million tons of exports and 4.6 million tons of imports.
The cargo turnover of the seaports of the Danube Region in January-October 2023 amounted to 27.6 million tons, which is 2.2 times more than in the same period of 2021 (12.6 million tons), said Yuriy Lytvyn, Head of the State Enterprise “Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority”.
At the “Infrastructure Day 2023” organized by the European Business Association in Kyiv on Friday, he recalled that in 10 months of 2021, cargo turnover in the Danube ports amounted to only 4.4 million tons.
According to Lytvyn, the number of vessels handled in Danube ports in 10 months of this year increased by 54.3% compared to 10 months of last year – from 7,780 thousand to 12,005 thousand, while in 10 months of 2021 there were 2,897 thousand.
The Head of USPA clarified that out of 40 million tons of cargo for 10 months of this year and last year, 18.3 million tons were grain cargo, 3.6 million tons – ore, 3.2 million tons – vegetable oil, 2.6 million tons – oil products and 12.4 million tons – other cargo.
The Infrastructure Day also noted that the Ukrainian corridor under the control of the Ukrainian Navy to the Black Sea ports of Greater Odesa (Odesa, Chornomorsk, Pivdennyi), which was fully operational in August-September, exported 1.994 million tons in October, and 1.591 million tons since the beginning of November, compared to 0.278 million tons in September and only 0.06 million tons in August.
Seaports in 2022 transshipped 59 million tons of cargo, providing 54% of exports from the country, compared to the indicator in 2021 – 153.7 million tons – a drop of 2.6 times, the Administration of Ukrainian Sea Ports (AMPU) said in a message on Facebook.
According to it, 47.8 million tons of cargo was shipped for export, which is almost 2.5 times less than in pre-war 2021, while imports were almost 4 times less – 6.2 million tons.
It is specified that the turnover of cargo of the Odessa port in comparison with indicators of 2021 decreased from 22.56 million tons to 7.69 million tons, port “Pivdenniy” – from 53.47 million tons to 15.28 million tons, “Chernomorsk” – from 25.63 million tons to 11.8 million tons. – from 25.63 million tons to 11.76 million tons.
Ukrainian ports mostly transshipped grain cargoes, which provided almost half of the total volume – 28.8 million tons, bulk cargoes amounted to 4.8 million tons.
AMPU emphasized the great importance of the agreement on the “grain initiative”, which allowed to unblock the work of ports “Big Odessa”, and if it were not for the actions of Russia, which blocks the “grain corridor”, the performance of the agreement could have been higher, the report said.
Administration specified that 614 vessels with 16 million tons of agricultural products for 40 countries have been sent for export within the framework of “grain initiative” since August 1. From the port of Odessa – 188 ships with 4.2 million tons, from the port of Chernomorsk – 261 vessels with 6.4 million tons, from Pivdenniy port – 165 vessels with 5.5 million tons.
One third of the vessels – 281 with 7.2 million tons of cargo was bound for Asia, and slightly less – 246 vessels with 6.8 million tons – for Europe, while 87 vessels with 2.1 million tons headed for Africa.
AMPU said that 2022 was planned as the year of the port infrastructure development, but the war has radically changed plans, and with the blocking of most Ukrainian ports, the administration focused on the development of transport logistics of the Danube region.
As a result, the volume of cargo handling in the port of Reni has grown to 6.82 million tons from 1.37 million tons in 2021, port Izmail – to 8.89 million tons from 4 million tons, Ust-Dunaysk – to 785 thousand tons from 64 thousand tons, which were the best results for all the years of Independence.
It was possible to achieve better results due to the development of public-private partnership and maximum business deregulation, the report says, as well as due to the dredging works, which were carried out for the first time in many years near the deep-water berths of Izmail and Reni. The total volume of operational dredging in port Izmail was 710 thousand cubic meters, in port Reni – 130 thousand cubic meters with a total volume of 280 thousand cubic meters, which is planned to be done until the end of II quarter of 2023. Dredging works were carried out by AMPU’s own forces with the participation of branch “Dredging fleet”.
AMPU noted that despite the fact that the Danube ports attracted all the available facilities for cargo handling, there is a potential for development in 2023. It will be realized by modernization of port infrastructure, construction of new terminals, continuation of dredging works and attraction of investments.
The export of Ukrainian agricultural products through the EU countries, including taking into account deliveries through the Danube river ports, cannot exceed 1.5 million tons per month under any circumstances, while before the blockade of its seaports by the Russian troops, the country could transship more than 5 million tons per month. million tons of agricultural crops per month.
The opinion about the need for Ukraine to work on the launch of new logistics routes and export directions was expressed by First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky during the expert discussion “Blocked trade: can Ukraine increase export capacity” on Friday.
“We preliminary calculated that up to one and a half million tons is still the maximum. Therefore, I think that we can count on this until May, and then only alternative directions,” Vysotsky said.
He clarified that Ukraine has enough agricultural products for export, and Ukrainian farmers can supply as much grain as they need to foreign markets, and the volume of its exports is limited only by logistics.
As reported with reference to the Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solsky, in April 2022 Ukraine exported 1.09 million tons of grain mainly through Romanian ports, which is more than five times higher than in March.
According to him, most of the export deliveries from Ukraine were carried out in April through the river ports of the Danube, since the Ukrainian Black Sea ports are blocked by Russian warships.
At the same time, the logistics of Ukrainian agricultural products through Romania may become more complicated and slow down in June, when a new crop of Romanian, Serbian, Hungarian and Bulgarian winter wheat and barley will begin to arrive at the seaports of this country and will create competition with supplies from Ukraine.
In January-May 2021, the seaports of Ukraine handled 55.4 million tonnes of cargo, which is 18.6% less than in the same period in 2020.
As reported on the website of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA), the specified period, the ports mainly handled ore and grain cargo – 15.7 million tonnes (14.1% down) and 14.6 million tonnes (33.1% down) respectively.
At the same time, the transshipment of oil products grew by 46.7% and amounted to 657,700 tonnes.
In January-May, the transshipment of export cargo amounted to 42.6 million tonnes (18.6% down compared to the same period in 2020), import reached 8.8 million tonnes (13.4% down), transit totaled 3.4 million tonnes (25% down), and coastal cargo handling was 484,800 tonnes (42.5% down).
In addition, 415,532 TEU containers were handled in the first five months of this year, which is 6.4% less than in the same period in 2020.
As reported, the seaports of Ukraine in January-April 2021 handled 44.1 million tonnes of cargo, which is 19.6% less than in the same period in 2020.
