Odessa port ceases box handling, urges authorities to step in
Odessa Commercial Sea Port (Ukraine) has applied to the Ukrainian authorities when the state-owned company had nearly to stop clearance of import and transit containers. According to the company, this was caused by additional requirements of controlling agencies for inspection of containers. The Port Authority has petitioned the State Customs Service of Ukraine, Odessa Regional State Administration and the Ministry of Infrastructure.
In September 2010, the statement said, the country’s authorities simplified control procedures for goods and vehicles passing via commercial sea ports of Ukraine. This helped facilitate the clearance and processing of containers. The processing time per an imported container was reduced from 30 to 5 hours. However, on 14 January 2011 the local control authorities began a 100% inspection of inbound containers and domestic transit containers with a full discharge of a box contents.
In September 2010, the statement said, the country’s authorities simplified control procedures for goods and vehicles passing via commercial sea ports of Ukraine. This helped facilitate the clearance and processing of containers. The processing time per an imported container was reduced from 30 to 5 hours. However, on 14 January 2011 the local control authorities began a 100% inspection of inbound containers and domestic transit containers with a full discharge of a box contents.
As of 21, 2011 handling of boxes actually stopped at the port. Recently, only 4 containers left the port’s territory. There are 250 container trucks that have waited clearance for over two days. The port authorities had to stop acceptance of trucks from 17 January 2011. Currently, there is a backlog of about 7,000 containers at the port’s warehouses. By the end of the month 4,000 more boxes are expected to arrive at the port, the statement said.
OCSP urges the country’s authorities to respond to the situation.
State-owned Odessa Commercial Sea Port is a largest port of the Black Sea-Azov basin. The port enables trade flow in the amount of over 14m tons of dry cargo and 14m tons of petroleum products a year. Last year, cargo throughput of OCSP fell 11.8% y-o-y, to 24,7 million tons. Container traffic totaled 351,600 TEUs, or 3,91 million tons.
State-owned Odessa Commercial Sea Port is a largest port of the Black Sea-Azov basin. The port enables trade flow in the amount of over 14m tons of dry cargo and 14m tons of petroleum products a year. Last year, cargo throughput of OCSP fell 11.8% y-o-y, to 24,7 million tons. Container traffic totaled 351,600 TEUs, or 3,91 million tons.