The Ministry of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure (Minvosstaniya) is preparing to concession the first and fifth terminals of the Chornomorsk sea port.
“The first stage is the development of a feasibility study (feasibility study), the next stage is to hold a tender among those wishing to receive the port terminals “Chernomorsk” for concession,” the press service of the Ministry of Reclamation said in a statement on Friday.
The Ministry reminded that the process of transferring the terminals to concession had begun even before the full-scale invasion of Russia.
Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the Ministry of Restoration Alexander Kubrakov explained that the private partnership will lead to significant investments in the terminals, will optimize the logistics of transportation and improve the quality of service.
Besides, according to his words, thanks to the concession Ukraine will annually receive concession fee and taxes collection to the budget.
The feasibility study will be financed by the Global Infrastructure Fund, experts and consultants will be provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Finance Corporation.
As reported, in 2021, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the State Enterprise “Administration of the Sea Ports of Ukraine” transferred the state stevedoring companies of the sea ports “Kherson” and “Olvia” to private partners of the state.
Concession is an agreement on the transfer of natural resources, enterprises, other economic facilities owned by the state or a territorial community for temporary operation by other states, foreign firms, private persons.
On May 9 the sea port Izmail fulfilled the annual plan of cargo handling in the amount of 6.187 million tons, which is a record in the history of the port, said the head of the State Administration of Sea Ports of Ukraine (SAPU) Yuri Litvin.
“The first position in the nomenclature of cargo of the seaport of Ismail in terms of the volume of transshipment – bread cargo, in the second – other agricultural products (oil, meal, sunflower seeds), in the third – pellets,” – said the agency on Facebook.
According to it the biggest volume of cargo handling was demonstrated by Izmail Sea Commercial Port SE (2.656 million tons), Dunaysudoremont PJSC (1.289 million tons) and Dunaysudoservis IRP PJSC (805.0 thousand tons).
The capacity of the port for the export of agricultural products has increased due to the introduction of berths for cargo operations with grains and vegetable oils by new terminal operators – JSC “Dunaysudoservis”, PJSC “Danaysudoremont”, PJSC “IPCK”, as well as due to the construction of a new terminal by “Nibulon” JV LLC, added AMPU.
“Increase of throughput capacity of Izmail sea port, which today handles a significant share of Ukrainian export, was facilitated by restoration of navigation in the mouth of Bystroe, increase of the water area of MF “Izmail” and dredging works in the port water area,” – Litvin said.
He emphasized that the Danube cluster is a key alternative route of export-import logistics, which is a priority for the further development of AMPU.
As reported, last year the transshipment in the port of Ismail increased to 8.89 million tons from 4 million tons a year earlier.
The volume of transshipment of cargo in the Danube ports by the end of this year may increase up to 20 million tons against 16 million tons last year, which is three times more than before the war, predicted Deputy Prime Minister – head of the Ministry of Reclamation Alexander Kubrakov in late April. Of these, 16-17 million tons are agricultural products.
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.
A blockade of Ukraine’s ports would boost foreign currency revenues from product exports by at least $20 billion, according to Alexander Vodoviz, head of the project office of Metinvest’s general director.
“We’re picking up crumbs from the table, but we’re not seeing the big pie,” Vodoviz said at Forbes’ Exporters Summit.
Vodoviz urged asking questions about port de-blockades at meetings with the U.N. “There is some movement in that direction, but it’s not enough,” he added.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical companies. Its enterprises are located in Ukraine – in Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Dnipropetrovsk regions, as well as in Europe.
The major shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%) that manage it jointly.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest group.
One of the world leaders Danish transport and logistics company A.P. Moeller-Maersk AS, which stopped its ship calls to Ukraine since February last year after a full-scale Russian invasion, has resumed delivery of clients’ cargoes to the Ukrainian port of Reni from Constanta (Romania) by barge, the company’s official website says.
“Development in Ukraine remains in focus, as well as the implementation of solutions for our customers in terms of security,” it said.
According to it, Maersk is launching a new weekly barge service from Constanta port to Reni port on two routes – via Constanta/Danube Canal and the Black Sea with a transit time of approximately 1.5 days.
It is reported that the company’s system is updated and accepts reservations from customers with delivery to the port of Reni. Their implementation will be subject to the working capacities, subject to the proper documentation, including the legal adoption of the provision of Ukraine on the risks in the region.
The company advised to contact its local representatives for more detailed information about deliveries to the port of Reni.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, A.P. Moeller-Maersk AS decreased its net profit by 18.8% and revenue by 3.7%, which was worse than experts’ forecasts. Net income in October-December was $4.95 billion compared to $6.094 billion in the same period of the previous year. Revenue fell to $17.82 billion compared to $18.506 billion.
The average freight rate was down 3.5% for the fourth quarter of 2021, and freight volume fell 14%.
Maersk also stopped operations in the Russian market. All services in Russia ceased operations in the first quarter, and in the third quarter the deal to sell a 30.75% stake in Global Ports Investments was closed. The process of selling the remaining assets – two warehouses and four tugboats – continued.
Maersk generated EBITDA of $36.81 billion and EBIT of $30.86 billion in 2022.
The State Property Fund (SPF) has prepared the privatization of the Ust-Dunaysk Commercial Seaport, which will be the first sale of the seaport since Ukraine’s independence, the SPF website reported on Thursday.
According to the report, the auction will be held on January 17 at Prozorro.sale. The starting price of 60 million UAH.
“This year, Ust-Dunaysk began to play a crucial role in global food security. (…) It has great potential for the development of Ukrainian food exports. This requires investments that private business can bring,” commented Rustem Umerov, head of the Fund.
The State Property Fund noted that since the beginning of the port operation in war conditions it has transshipped 153 thousand tons of grain for export. In addition, Ust-Dunaisk handles imported cargo, such as salt and rice.
Since April 1, the port has handled 58.3 thousand tons of imported consumer goods.
At the same time in January-September 2022 Ust-Dunaisk received 848 thousand UAH of net profit. In January-November, it paid more than 9 million UAH of taxes to the budgets of all levels.
The port itself consists of three assets: a port in Vilkovo, Odessa region, port point “Kilia” in the city of the same name and a base of service of special ships lighter carriers on the island of Shabash.
Direct loading-unloading operations are carried out in port point Kiliya, located at 54th km of the Danube River. Passport depths at the pier – 3 meters, actual – 1.5 meters.
As reported, on November 11, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine decided to expand the water area of three seaports on the Danube: the port in Izmail, Reni and the port of Ust-Dunaisk.
