Port hub project in Crimea
The construction of container transshipment port hub is being considered in Crimea. Experts are skeptical about the project’s future as the ports outside the Black Sea are better tailored for container transshipment.
Crimean dreams
The Crimea (Ukraine) is considering the possibility of building a construction port-hub. According to the local media, this was announced by Anatoly Mogilev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. He says the new port should specialize in transshipment. Possible territories to be occupied by the port are Donuzlav lake, Kerch area and a lake near Frunze settlement. The port’s specific parameters have not been announced yet.
“There certainly should be a big port-hub in Crimea for large vessels to unload the containers destined for smaller ports. The geopolitical position of Crimea makes it generally suitable for this,” Anatoly Mogilev said.
According to him, the project is being discussed with the potential investors now. “In particular, our delegation was in China and demonstrated the possibility of such a big port to China investors. They are interested in it as well,” The Crimean Prime Minister noted.
The project idea seems to be focused on the distance to Crimea from the Bosporus exit to the Black Sea as compared with other ports of Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and North-East Turkey. Large container carrier could take a short way to Crimea, unload there and return.
However, today, the port-hub in the Black Sea is located in Istanbul (Turkey). It is located at the entry to the Bosporus. The problem is in the limited navigation along the Bosporus. Container carriers of up to 300 meters long with the capacity not exceeding 10,000 TEUs can pass it. Meanwhile, Istanbul can handle container carriers with the capacity of up to 14,000 TEUs. Vessels’ capacity can be expanded with increased width and draught but the limits of Black Sea ports should be taken into consideration here. There are no adequate projects so far. As IAA PortNews learnt from the participants of the stevedoring market, in 20013 Ukrainian and Russian ports handled container carriers of up to 7,500 tonnes TEUs (Constanta, Ilyichevsk and Odessa).
As the market participants told PortNews, transshipment is profitable for ports capable of handling at least 14,000 TEUs. Then a vessel loaded in, let’s say Shanghai, can be fully unloaded in a hub. If a port can handle container carriers with the capacity not exceeding 10,000 TEUs, it will not be able to compete with ports featuring no limits of this kind.
So Crimea can’t take over the transshipment from Istanbul as vessels capacity tends to increase for the reduction of costs and container cell cost value.
It is also interesting that the ports of Bulgaria and Romania are even closer to the Bosporus. According to Informall company, the terminal in Romanian Constanta had the highest container turnover in the Black Sea in the first half of 2013. Before 2009, it was Constanta to transship the majority of containers destined for other ports of the Black Sea. However, the port’s throughput has decreased 2.5 times when comparing 2008 with 2012 due to the shift of cargo flows.
Possible locations of the port also raise the question. Donuzlav and Frunze seem to be reasonable (as the shortest way to the Bosporus), while the idea of the Kerch area is not clear. Dry cargo district of Russian port Taman is to be built just opposite Kerch. This project also implies the construction of container facilities (for at least 1.8 mln TEUs per year). The construction is to commence 2015 with the launch scheduled for 2017. According to the order of RF President Vladimir Putin, the project the construction is to be completed in 2020.
In this case it would be not just transshipment, but a direct competition with Russian ports. As for the competition, container terminals in the region including those of Ukraine are only partly loaded today (by one third only). Port clearing capacity will be another challenge in the Crimea peninsula.
Vitaly Chernonov