Ukraine expands its shipping capacity

Just several years ago, the Ukrainian Danube region was among the country’s most economically depressed areas. All the entities associated with shipping on the Danube, such as ports and ship-repair plants, were on the brink of survival. Since April 2007, however, after the use of the Danube-Black Sea deepwater navigation canal (DNC) resumed, the situation in the Danube region has been changing for the better by The Day — the number of ships going through the canal and the volume of freight throughput have increased, while the activity of the ports has intensified. One could say that the revival of the DNC gave residents of small Danubian towns confidence in the future.

The history of this project dates back to 2003. Then, after a comprehensive evaluation of ten alternative projects for the DNC, the one which called for the digging of the DNC at the Shvydke mouth was determined to be “the most economically, environmentally, technically, justified.” This was because the winning project did not foresee the creation of a new artificial canal, which would be both financially and environmentally costly, but rather focused on strengthening several segments of the natural river bed at a branch of the north arm of the Danube Delta. Keeping true to its name [shvydke means “rapid” in Ukrainian. – Ed.] , the mouth is not only rapid, but also wide and deep enough naturally, only being vulnerable to silting where the river falls into the Black Sea.

Construction work began in May 2004 and in August of the same year the DNC started running in maintenance and experimental mode, being able to accept vessels with drafts of five meters or less.

Thus, our Danube ports substantially increased their freight throughput, and the Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company began to revive. However, as a result of intense summer-autumn floods on the Danube river in 2005, and due to lack of the levee (not yet completed at the time), the DNC, in fact, ceased to exist. It was only restored in April 2007, and at that time it was only passable for ships with a draft of no more than four and a half meters. Only in 2008, after the state enterprise Delta-lotsman had carried out dredging work of the sea bottom at the end of the Shvydke mouth, did operations resume at the previous rate.

The main problem which complicated navigation on the DNC remained the constant silting of the sea bed and the decreasing depth at the end of the canal. Storms are common in the region, especially in the autumn and winter months. Thus, waves eroded the slopes of the sea canal, so the state had to spend extra money on dredging. But this problem is now resolved, too, by Delta-lotsman, which acts as a contractor of design and construction work on the DNC, on behalf of the Ministry of Transport. On November 23 this year, the director of the state enterprise Delta-lotsman Oleksandr Holodnytsky announced the completion of the levee, which now firmly defends the entrance to the Shvydke mouth from the destructive waves, and reduces silting.

This event was long awaited. The levee not only makes entry into the DNC safer, but also stabilizes the depths of the sea approach canal. This is very important for ship-owners when choosing routes for their ships.

Holodnytsky also noted that completion of the levee has an important economic impact, as it reduces the cost of dredging.

Completion of the levee construction is the beginning of recovery for the Ukrainian DNC. No wonder the Minister of Transport and Communications of Ukraine Kostiantyn Yefymenko called the event an important step towards implementing an ambitious project to restore navigation in the Ukrainian part of Danube Delta. The minister also noted that the positive results of the Danube-Black Sea DNC’s operation once again confirm the promising prospects of this transport corridor. Our DNC was listed by the UN’s European Economic Commission in the so-called Blue Book, it is a part of the pan-European international transport corridor (ITC) No. 7. Its operation is not only in Ukraine’s national interests, but also dictated by the expediency of creating a competitive alternative to the Romanian canals for anyone interested in developing the ITC No. 7.

The best testament to the Danube-Black Sea DNC’s attractiveness is that more and more ship-owners prefer the Ukrainian waterway. Indeed, its performance is quite impressive. During its existence, over 4,760 vessels of different class have passed through the canal. The number of ships going through the canal grows every year. For the ten months of this year, 1,253 vessels used the Danube-Black Sea DNC, while the figure for the same period last year was 1,123 vessels, and for the first ten months of 2008 — 1,048 vehicles.

On November 11, 2010, the Danube-Black Sea DNC recorded its best result for ship throughput since the resumption of navigation. On that day, 19 ships were piloted through the canal. Today, the Shvydke mouth is already passable for heavy vessels with draught of more than five meters. Recently, another ship of such class, the motor vessel Maher, loaded sunflower seed at the port of Reni and headed through the DNC in the Black Sea and then to Libya. In total, over 50 such vessels were piloted through the DNC since the resumption of shipping.

The numbers indicate that the DNC has once again beat its Romanian competitor, the Sulina canal; for the second consecutive year already. Over the same ten months of this year, the Romanian canal saw only 1,051 vessels. It’s not surprising that the Ukrainian DNC wins this competition, as the capacity of the Romanian canals is low because they work only during The Daytime and only in one direction... However, in some cases the Romanian side does not abide by the rules of the competition. And it is no accident that the Ukrainian minister of transport and communications said that “the main factor that prevents us from the full realization of the project is diplomacy. We had a meeting with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Romania to Ukraine, where we had an opportunity to discuss the current state of relations between our countries on matters pertaining to the DNC’s construction. Moreover, we are constantly working on the organization of joint commissions for shipping regulation on common areas of the Danube.”

What are the prospects for the Danube-Black Sea DNC? Delta-lotsman’s management is convinced that the project has fully proved its viability. This opinion is shared by the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Ukraine. Not by chance, the staff of Delta-lotsman is tasked with starting of the second phase of construction as soon as possible and bringing the DNC to its full capacity.

The second stage of the resuming of navigation on the Danubei-Black Sea DNC will start in 2011; already in the beginning of the next year, the process of issuing permits for dredging sea and river segments of the DNC is to commence. “We plan to move to the second phase of the project, to bring the depth of the navigation canal to 9,5-10 meters. This will allow us to set a maximum draft for ships using the canal at 7,2 meters. If this will be done, the Ukrainian canal will fully rival the Romanian Sulina,” said Holodnytsky. Next year, the development of the DNC is to be financed to the tune of 73.5 million hryvnias, according to the construction project’s financial documents; the money will come mostly from Delta-lotsman, and this figure is, incidentally, hard to even compare with the Romanian side’s expenses on the canals’ construction.

Commenting on the prospects of the project, the State Department of Sea and River Transport’s deputy chairman Viktor Sudariev said that the second phase of development of navigation is scheduled for completion in 2012. “For Ukraine, the development of this project is a strategic task. The navigation canal will allow for the development of the Ukrainian ports in the Danube Delta. This means new jobs, additional contracts for the region’s enterprises. The Ministry of Transport and Communications of Ukraine fully supports this project,” noted Sudariev.