Hutchison Ports into Ukraine?

News-in-print 1 Dec 2017 by WCN Editorial

Global terminal operator Hutchison Ports has filed an application to Ukraine’s State Property Fund to take on a 49-year lease of berths Nos. 1-6 at the Ukrainian Black Sea harbour of Chornomorsk (formerly Ilyichevsk).

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Minister of infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan hopes that both preconditions will be met, so as to lease the berths out by May next year. In December last year, Hutchison signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Ukraine for the development of Chornomorsk’s container handling facilities. The infrastructure minister had hoped to finalise the agreement and close the deal in 2017.

Berths Nos. 3-6 house the idle Ilyichevsk Container Terminal (ICT), operated by the former NCC of Russia. ICT was the subject of a protracted and much-publicised dispute between NCC and the port administration. Last year, Chornomorsk handled just 18,163 TEU, compared to 670,556 TEU in 2008, when ICT was in full swing. In fact, Ukraine’s aggregate container handling volume halved from 1,253,956 TEU in 2008 to 579,472 TEU in 2016, and ICT, along with everyone else, struggled after the 2009-10 global crisis, although volumes have been gradually increasing in the past year or so.

In October last year, the Ukrainian infrastructure ministry signed an MoU with DP World, which was reportedly interested in entering not only Chornomorsk, but also Yuzhny. In April this year, the parties agreed to form a joint working group, which would elaborate and submit its suggestions to Ukraine’s cabinet. That same month, China’s state-run Sinohydro voiced its interest in the concession of Chornomorsk’s rail ferry terminal.

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This complete item appeared in the December 2017 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 4. To access this issue download the PDF here.