Nibulon Joint Venture LLC proposes introducing a transitional mechanism for assigning and confirming the qualifications of river fleet specialists, which, according to its estimates, will make it possible to increase shipments through the Danube export corridor by 100,000 metric tons per month, the company’s press service reported, citing Logistics Director Serhiy Kalkutin.
“Nibulon” could deploy an additional 12 tugboats on the Danube, but this would require resolving the issue of retraining and processing the necessary paperwork for approximately 30 specialists. And we are not the only ones facing this limitation. “If a workable mechanism is created to attract qualified specialists on an industry-wide scale, the Danube corridor will be able to transport up to an additional 100,000 metric tons of cargo per month,” the press service quoted Kalkutin as saying.
He explained that shipowners have a technically ready fleet but are unable to fully staff their crews or put additional vessels into service due to a shortage of qualified crew members.
As noted in the statement, “Nibulon” proposes introducing a temporary transitional mechanism for certifying and confirming the qualifications of inland waterway fleet specialists and for them to obtain the necessary documents until the full transition to European regulations is complete. This, in particular, will allow specialists with the necessary training and experience to complete the paperwork required to work on the Danube more quickly.
Kalkutin emphasized that additional shipments via the Danube corridor will make it possible to support purchases from agricultural producers, ensure the inflow of foreign exchange earnings, and increase the resilience of Ukraine’s export system.
“Nibulon” proposed that the relevant government agencies, together with industry representatives, develop a transitional solution that would allow for the recruitment of the necessary number of qualified specialists to work on inland waterways while complying with requirements for professional competence and navigation safety.
As reported, according to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, from August 1 to 18, Ukraine exported 900,000 metric tons of agricultural products, of which about 45% were exported via the Danube region.
As part of its capital investment plan for 2024, Continental Farmers Group has started to upgrade its fleet of agricultural and special machinery, which it intends to replenish with 35 new tractors, combines, sprayers and seeders, as well as various equipment, the company’s press service reports.
“The condition and quality of our technical facilities are among the main factors that determine how successful the upcoming production seasons will be for us. We do not deviate from the approved investment plan. The company is already receiving the first deliveries of machinery this year, which will be actively used in the spring field work. The next deliveries, which will include machinery for the autumn fieldwork and storage equipment for potatoes, are planned closer to the harvest,” said Georg von Nolken, CEO of Continental Farmers Group.
According to the report, Continental has purchased 21 new tractors of various capacities, five combine harvesters, four self-propelled sprayers, five seeders, tillage machines, fertilizer spreaders, special and other auxiliary equipment, and precision farming equipment.
The agricultural holding noted that Continental purchases all new equipment in line with its strategy of developing and unifying its machinery fleet. All equipment is equipped to comply with precision farming technology. It ensures compliance with the following requirements: high-quality and stable autopilot operation, the ability to control the application rate by the task map, automatic control of machine sections, remote service access to monitoring, synchronization of field work, navigation between rows, etc.
Mriya Agro Holding and CFG, united under the name Continental Farmers Group, have been operating as a single business since November 2018, when Mriya entered into an agreement with international investor Salic UK to sell its assets.
Salic was founded in 2012. Its sole shareholder is the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, which invests in agricultural and livestock production.
AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY, CONTINENTAL, FLEET, SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
SkyUp (Kyiv) added its 14th aircraft to its fleet, a medium-haul Boeing 737-800NG for 189 passengers.
The airline said on its website on Saturday, this is the eighth aircraft of this model in the SkyUp fleet.
The plane arrived in Kyiv in a branded livery, equipped with split winglets Split Scimitar.
Aircraft registration number is UR-SQP, manufacture year is 2006.
The new aircraft is ready for operation and will be scheduled as soon as all necessary permits have been received.
PrJSC Ukrainian Danube Navigation plans to raise up to EUR 200 million in the next five years to modernize the fleet, acting chairman of the board of the Ukrainian Danube Navigation Oleksiy Khomiakov has told Interfax-Ukraine.
He also estimates the size of investments in the new fleet or in-depth modernization of the existing fleet of all market players that will be necessary to implement the full potential of the Dnipro River in the next five years in the amount of about EUR 1.7 billion.
“In the next five years, we plan to raise up to EUR 200 million, which will be used to modernize the fleet that is in the holding anchorage, as well as the possible construction of new units in cooperation with leading shipyards in the world,” Khomiakov said.
According to him, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine evaluates the Ukrainian Danube Navigation as the main national carrier, served to make up for the missing system offer to the main exporters of Ukraine for transportation along the Dnipro River.
He said that the company is negotiating with the institutional investors, who are interested in collaborating and investing in a new, more environmentally preferred and efficient fleet, capable of fully meeting Ukraine’s export needs for decades ahead, complementing the overloaded railway and automobile infrastructure.
“However, we still need to overcome a number of obstacles by creating an effective model of enterprise management, having an international audit performed, raising government guarantees and then come close to receiving relevant financing from the EBRD, the IFC, etc.,” Khomiakov said.
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).
Legal entities in Ukraine in January-September 2019 purchased and registered 20,300 passenger cars, which is 12% more than for the same period in 2018, including 19,000 new cars and 1,300 imported used cars, Ukrautoprom has said.
According to the association, the share of new cars in total corporate acquisitions this year was 97% compared to 93% a year earlier.
As for new cars, the highest demand among legal entities was recorded for Renault brand cars with 4,457 cars, Toyota ranked second with 2,968 cars, and Skoda ranked third with 2,533 cars.
When choosing imported used cars, legal entities more often chose Volkswagen cars, having acquired 173 passenger cars of this brand since the beginning of the year. This is followed by Nissan (129 units) and Mercedes-Benz (113 units).
Ukrautoprom noted that since the beginning of the year, 383,300 cars have been registered in Ukraine, of which 61,700 are new cars and 321,600 were used cars imported from abroad.
