At the end of 2019, Ukrainian sea ports exceeded the volume of container transshipment of 1 million TEU for the first time in the last 10 years. Last year, container ships arrived at the ports Pivdennyi and Odesa on December 30 and 31.
According to the operational data of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, for the whole of 2019, one million and three and a half thousand TEU containers were handled in the ports (TEU is a conventional unit of measurement based on the volume of a 20-foot (6.1 meters) intermodal ISO-container). This is more than 18% higher than in 2018.
Transshipment of container cargo in Ukraine for the second year in a row shows significant growth, which is several times higher than the average world figures in the container transport market. Now four private container terminals are successfully operating in Ukrainian ports, which plan to develop their capacities in 2020. The corresponding memoranda and agreements were signed between USPA and the subsidiary of the German company ННLА Container terminal Odesa, as well as the third largest container line in the world CMA CGM together with the Ukrainian company Brooklyn-Kiev,— said the Head of USPA Raivis Veckagans. According to him, this gives reason to expect further development of container transport, especially due to the transit of containers and the inclusion of Ukraine in the routes of the Chinese Silk Road and the Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA), the first cargo on which began to be delivered in 2019.
Export and import of containers in the past year were distributed almost equally due to the advantage of imports — 48.6% and 46.8%, respectively. The positive dynamics of exports is provided by increasing containerization of food and light industry products (processing of agricultural raw materials — flour, wheat, peas, textiles). The growth of container cargo imports is traditionally influenced by the strengthening of the hryvnia, which makes it more attractive to supply food, machinery and electronics, construction materials and other goods from abroad.
The transit of container cargo is still significantly inferior in the volume of imports and exports and is only 46.4 thousand TEU. However, in 2019, it showed impressive growth rates, increasing by 42% compared to the previous year.
The leader in transshipment of containers in Ukraine is the terminal of CTO SC in Odesa, followed by another terminal of the Odesa port — Brooklyn-Kiev Port, TIS-CT in the port Pivdennyi and Ilyichivsk Sea Fishing Port in Chornomorsk.
In 2019, 15 largest shipping companies, which account for 99.5% of the total volume of containers, carried out ship calls to the sea ports of Ukraine. The top three are Maersk Line, CMA CGM, MSC, which provide more than half of the entire container market in Ukraine (53.5%).
Ports of Ukraine are included in the routes of ocean services:
1) Bosphours Express Service (BEX) — weekly service of the Ocean Alliance on ship calls to the sea port of Odesa;
2) ZIM Med Pacific (ZMP) — weekly service of the company ZIM on the Far-Eastern Ports with a call to the sea port of Odesa;
3) ECUMED — weekly service Maersk Line from Latin America with a call to the sea port of Pivdennyi;
4) Middle East (ME3) — weekly service of Maersk Line, which connected Ukrainian ports with the countries of the Middle East.