The Black Sea container carriages keep booming.
A year ago we wrote about fantastic growth rates the seaports of the Black Sea had shown in the period from 2001 till 2006 on an average by 40,2 % in TEUs and by 36,5 % in tons a year. It seemed that it is impossible to build up container turnover faster the world container market grew in that period only by 9-10 % annually. Many experts tended to believe that the growth rates in the Black Sea basin had to slow down essentially.
But 2007 refuted those forecasts. The entire container throughput of Black Sea ports (without Turkish ones) increased from 2,245,800 TEUs in 2006 to 3,137,100 TEUs in 2007 by 39,6 %.
Most intensively container carriages increased through terminals of Russia (+51 %), Ukraine (+46,3 %), Georgia (+45,6 %).
If in 2006 only Romania could boast by handling of more than one million TEUs in the port of Constantsa (1,037,000 TEUs), in 2007 Ukraine joined the club of millionaires. In Ukrainian ports they handled 1,067,000 TEUs. The container handling in Constantsa increased more than considerably, however to 1,411,000 TEUs.
Six direct services connecting Far East with the Black Sea region were launched last year both by the largest global container lines and their alliances.In 2006, for example, 36 shipping container companies run their services through Ukrainian ports, in 2007 already 41.
In the last year the throughput capacity of two Ukrainian container ports considerably increased. In the port of Illichevsk they put in operation the updated terminal of UKRTRANSCONTAINER Company. Its facilities allow handling up to 850,000 TEUs annually. Reconstruction and updating of technological processes and equipment resulted in increase of capacities of Odessa port. Today both ports can accommodate simultaneously four ocean container carriers exceeding 5,000 TEUs of container capacity.
Let us notice that the main issue of world container carriages has been still that the cargo turnover is growing much faster than terminal capacities, experts confirm. Drewry Shipping Consultants predict that in the Eastern Europe loading of terminals will reach 100 % by 2009. Growth of container carriages creates weight of problems for transport and forwarding companies hardly coping with such container flows. And on the other hand, naturally, it stimulates the race in development of old and building of new terminal capacities. This year in Ukraine the new container terminal of company BROOKLIN-KIEV in Odessa port will be put into service. The terminal of the company TRANSINVESTSERVICE is being constructed in the water area of Yuzhny port in the full swing. There are some projects of new terminals in Illichevsk ports water area, in Dnepro-Bug estuary.
Earlier non-operational container terminal in the Georgian port of Batumi is modernised, container terminals in Novorossisk extend and are equipped with new machinery, in Burgas and Varna they prepare for building of two capacious terminals. At last in the port of Constantsa the tender on construction of one more new container terminal has been appointed for April 2007. And you can hardly consider plans, pre-design workings out of new capacities.
PORTS OF UKRAINE Publishing House and the Center for Information and Analytics BLACKSEATRANS hold the annual Black Sea Container Summit in the second time so that the heads of the companies and top specialists related to container carriages could get first-hand detailed and credible information concerning the container business situation in the Black Sea countries, had possibility to meet colleagues, get acquainted with potential partners.
The first such summit was held in November 2007 in Odessa. The event gathered over 150 delegates from 17 countries: Russia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania, Great Britain, the United Arab Emirates, Estonia, Finland, Moldova, the USA, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and, certainly, Ukraine.
Representatives of the most significant global container terminal operators participated in the work of the forum, such as Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), Port Singapore Authorities (PSA), Dubai Port World (DP World), International Container Terminal Service Inc. (ICTSI), National Container Company; senior officers and delegates from the sea ports of Illichevsk, Odessa, Nikolaev, Novorossiysk, Sevastopol, Constantsa, Poti and those from port administrations and associations of Bulgaria and Turkey; representatives of stevedoring companies like SOCEP, NUTEP, TRANSINVESTSERVICE, METALSUKRAINE and shipping companies like Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Mitsui O,S.K. Lines (MOL), ARKAS, Royal Boskalis, Volga-Don Shipping Company, UKRFERRY; manufacturers of container handling equipment: Kalmar, Konecranes, Fantuzzi Reggiane; transport and forwarding companies KUEHNE+NAGEL, TRANSCONTAINER, Russian Container, United Transport Holding, Far Eastern Transport Group, ILLICHEVSKVNESHTRANS, Kaalbay Logistics, Global Container Service and others.
The 2nd International Black Sea Container Summit 2008 takes place in Odessa on October 9-10, 2008. It will be the next review of container forces of the Black Sea countries that will allow estimating to the full ones and another's possibilities, to analyze prospects, to sound new plans and projects.
Take part in the summit!
Let the Black Sea region be containerized!Konstantin Ilnitskiy
The Chairman of Organizational Committee of the 2nd Black Sea Container Summit 2008, Editor-in-Chief of PORTS OF UKRAINE Journal
Organizational Committee :
Ph .: +380 (482) 37-38-82, 37-19-80, fax : 37-38-35
