Review of Black Sea container market in 2015

In 2015, Black Sea container terminals of Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and Bulgaria handled 2,294,848 TEUs including empty containers and excluding transshipment. 

The review covers only loaded containers – 1,628,797 TEUs which is 12.18% percent decrease against 2014.

Container throughput of Black Sea region in 2015 – 2014, TEU loaded 

The growth of container throughput was shown by Bulgaria and Romania. The terminals of Ukraine, Russia and Georgia demonstrated a fall of 26.1%, 13% and 13.24% accordingly.

Imports account for 52.66% of containers handled in the region in 2015, exports – 47.34%. Loaded/empty containers ratio in the region is 70.98% / 29.02%.

As compared with 2014, exports of loaded containers in the Black Sea region climbed by 0.22%. Ukraine showed the steepest fall - 14.94%. The growth was demonstrated by Georgia (18.99%), Bulgaria, Russia and Romania. As for imports into the region, it dropped by 20.97% mostly due to reduced imports to Ukraine (-36.54%). Other countries also showed imports reduction except for Romania (+2.43%).  

Handling of loaded containers per country, TEU

Handling of loaded containers in the reported period per country is as follows: Romania – 26.17%, Russia – 25.41%, Ukraine – 25.06%, Georgia – 13.63%, Bulgaria – 9.73%.

As for total container throughput, the list of top five container terminal changed with DPW (Constanta) having retained its leading position, HPC Ukraine (Odessa) rising from the 5^th to the 3^rd position, APMT Poti (Georgia) having retained its 2^nd position, Novoroslesexport (Russia) falling from the 3^rd to the 4^th position and NUTEP (Russia) falling from the 4^th to the 5^th position. Four of the top five terminals of the region demonstrated the fall of container throughput. Container throughput of DPW (Constanta) grew by 1.15%.

As for operators of Black Sea lines, the list of leaders has changed. It includes Maersk Line, MSC, CMA CGM, ARKAS and ZIM. With ARKAS having pushed ZIM down from the 4^th to the 5^th position. Maersk Line has taken the leading position having pushed MSC to the second place.  The above lines control 74.10% of the market of loaded containers in the Black Sea region.

Shares of Black Sea lines in 2015

The service of G6 (Hapag Lloyd, OOCL, MOL, NYK, HMM, APL) was reorganized from the middle of 2014. OOCL moved to ZIM and G6 alliance became G5. In 2014, G5 members controlled 6.21% of the market, in 2015 – their share declined to 5.81%. The share of OOCL declined from 2.18% in 2014 to 1.92% in 2015. ABX service was terminated in 2015.

The first quarter of 2015 saw the beginning of joint activities of 2М (Maersk and MSC) and Ocean Three (CMA CGM, CSCL, UASC) alliances. Total share of MAERSK and MSC in the market increased by 1.41 p.p. from 45.28% in 2014 to 46.69% in 2015. The share of Ocean Three increased by 1.42 p.p. from 13.80% in 2014 to 15.22% in 2015.

It also should be noted that Black Sea container market saw certain changes in 2015. WHL and KLINE terminated their activities in the region while CSAV merged with Hapag Lloyd, hence the decrease of CSAV results in this market. A new company entered the market – TURKON Line – it has strong positions at Mediterranean – North America route. Having entered this market in partnership with Admiral Container Line, TURKON Line is looking for growth reserves basing on dynamically developing trade relations between Ukraine and USA.

 Review provided by Informall BG.