The Maritime Economist Magazine Spring 2015 | Page 36

THEMARITIME Economist

FreshMINDS
A recent acute problem that Ukrainian ports are
facing is the lack of available port handling capacities
to handle the imported coal from overseas. In about
half year time, Ukraine turned from a coal exporting
country into importing coal country, because of the
rebels’ actions in the industrial hart of Ukraine.
There are five ports in Crimea: Yevpatorya,
Sevsatopol, Yalta, Feodosiya and Kerch. There are
several factors affecting cargo traffic rerouting in these
ports:

ME Mag

• There is a clear reluctance of foreign cargo
owners to send cargo via these ports. They will
most likely prefer more stable Ukrainian ports
such as Odessa, Yuzhnyi or Illyihevsk. The main
cargoes handled in Crimean ports were grains
(mainly in Avlita port for the global traders such
as Kernel, Luis Dreyfus etc) and metals by SCM
holding (in Avlita).
• Crimea is facing challenges with hinterland
connections. The only way to avoid a transit via
Ukraine is by ferry via Kerch port to Taman and
Caucasus port of Russia.
• The Plans for the Kerch bridge have been revived
(estimated cost about RUB 50bn or US$3bn) and
the construction is expected to take 3-4 years.
However, no real investment plans were officially
published.
• The capacity of Kerch port is very low because
of several reasons: (i) the current daily loading/
unloading capacity is about 50 wagons; (ii) there
are about 200 km of one direction non-electrified
railway. Assuming that in over four years there
will be a bridge connecting the Crimean territory
with the continental part of Russia, the maximum
capacity of the whole transportation corridor
(Taman-Kerch-Feodosia) will reach 12-15 trains
per day (CFTS).
• The depute Prime-Minister of Russia Rustam
Temirgaliev recently communicated that the
ports of Feodosiya and Yevpatoriya are going to
be closed, and a new road will be constructed
between Yalta, Alushta and Feodosia. These
36
developments among others are expected to be

project can
“ Taman Portcargo shift from
generate a

Baltic gateway ports to Black
Sea gateways in view of
reaching the Russian
hinterland, particularly since
sailing from the East toTaman
port would require 12 sailing
days less than to Baltic ports.

included in the “Project of Territorial planning of
Crimea” that was presented to the Government
of the Russian Federation for final approval on
June 1, 2014. The reasoning behind the closure
of these two ports, as explained by the Minister
of Transport of Crimea Yuriy Shevshuk, is that the
cargo handled in Crimean ports was mainly to/
from the continental part of Ukraine. As Crimea
has become literally isolated from the continental
part of Ukraine, the future port volume prospects
are low, unless the political relations between
Ukraine, Russia and Crimea improve.
The prevailing cargo type for Crimean ports was oil
fuel and oil products (4.2 mln tons in 2013). The ports
involved in the liquid bulk handling were Kerch (1.9
mln tons), Feodosiya (2.1 mln tons) and the remaining
share was shipped via Sevastopol. Most of the oil and
oil products were transit cargoes, originating from
Russia and Kazakhstan. About 15 mln tons of liquid
bulk (exports of Russian oil and oil products) are
handled offshore in the Kerch strait. As it concerns
cargoes with a Russian and Kazakh origin, it is likely
that these cargoes will continue to be handled
via Crimean ports. However, port operations at
Feodosiya have a big probability of being suspended
due to new governmental policy.
Experts believe that the 7% of the metal products
of SCM holding that were handled in Avlita (private
terminal in Sevastopol port) will be redirected to
Odessa/Yuzhnyi ports (see also www.cfts.org).
The redirecting of these metal cargoes to ports in
the Azov Sea (Berdyansk, Mariupol) is less viable,
because of their limited draft and ice conditions in
winter time. Moreover the passage via Kerch strait is
operated by the Russian pilotage agency, and all