Page 65 - UKRRptNov19

BlackSeaNews, the Maidan of Foreign Affairs, and the Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies. Prior to the May 2018 opening of Russia’s Kerch Strait bridge, the wait time in either direction was seven hours. “The situation with the artificial delays of the Mariupol/Berdyansk vessels at the entrance to the Kerch Strait has returned to that of September-October 2018,” the study said. “Time has come to once again raise the issue of the Azov sanctions package against Russia’s Azov ports.”
Through September, Ukraine’s seaports handled 19.4% more cargo than during the same 9-month period last year. Grain and ore accounted for slightly more than half of the 114mn tons. Grain was up 37%. Ore was up 32%. Containers were up 21%, to 713,000 according to the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority.
Dnipro River cargo is up 26.4% through September, hitting 8.3mn tons, reports the Sea Ports Authority. Reflecting the use of larger barges, the number of river trips is down 32%, to 8,644. Grain cargo doubled, to 3.4mn tons. Metals were up 27%, to 1.2mn tons. Last year, 10mn tons of cargo moved on the Dnipro. During the late Soviet era, 60mn tons moved on the river. The Rada is debating an ‘Inland Waterways’ bill designed to facilitate public and private investment to allow for 24-hour shipping by modernizing locks, buying buoys, dredging the main channel.
Four Black Sea ports handle 87% of the cargo. Growing above the national 19% average were the top three: Pivdennii (Yuzhne) +28%; Mykolaiv +20%; and Chornomorsk +24%. Lagging was Odesa +17.5%. With ever-larger vessels docking at Ukraine’s ports, the number of ships was virtually flat, rising by less than one%. Despite pressure from Russian Coast Guard ships on the Azov, Mariupol managed to reverse its 2018 cargo decline. Through September, cargo handling increased by 2.3%, to 4.6mn tons.
● Cars
10-kilometer long line of 450 trucks has backed up at Ukraine’s main highway crossing into Slovakia. Ukrainian truckers try to take their goods through Slovakia to the EU because Poland cut its quota of Ukrainian trucker permits by one quarter. Ukrainian truckers charge that Poland is trying to force them to emigrate to work for Polish trucking companies, which lack drivers. With exports to the EU threatened, Ukraine tries to negotiate more permits from Poland.
To ease Mariupol’s highway isolation, Zelenskiy and Honcharuk inaugurated “the road of life” a new, two-lane, 225 km highway connecting Mariupol with Zaporizhia, a city with a growing international airport. Turkish and Ukrainian companies rebuilt the road in three months, with 1,000 workers using 600 pieces of equipment. Zelenskiy said: “Two hundred kilometers of the road was built from scratch. For steelmakers, ports and the Ukrainian Army, this is perhaps the most important transport artery.”
Toll Roads: The Infrastructure Ministry has started feasibility studies for five privately run toll highways: Kyiv-Bila Tserkva, Kyiv’s Ring Road, Lviv- Krakovets (Polish border) and Lviv-Stryi (on the way to Zakarpattia). Krikliy calculates a toll highway will only make money if 13-15,000 cars travel in each direction every day. With the cuts in import taxes, Ukraine’s car fleet grows by double digits every year.
65 UKRAINE Country Report November 2019 www.intellinews.com