NIBULON’s fleet transported a record number of cargoes by Ukrainian rivers in 2019
In the 2019 navigation season, NIBULON’s shipping company transported more than 3.8 million tons of cargoes by Ukrainian rivers, NIBULON says in a press release.
Every year, NIBULON informs about the shipping company’s activities, setting new records annually. 2019 is not an exception. At the beginning of the navigation season, the company’s fleet consisting of 77 units made 930 cargo trips, having transported more than 3.8 million tons of various cargoes by inland waterways, which is by 35% more compared with last year.
The shipping company transported more than 3 million tons of cargoes by the Dnipro River as well as by the Buh-Dnipo-Lyman Canal (including rendering services to third parties) and more than 800 thousand tons by the Southern Buh River.
In 2019, NIBULON’s fleet continued to increase the nomenclature of cargoes transported by rivers. In addition to grain, the shipping company transported metal products, reinforced-concrete slabs, sand, piles, Kherson watermelons and melons.
Since NIBULON’s shipping company commenced operations, it has transported about 17 million tons of cargoes by inland waterways, thereby removing more than 708 thousand trucks from the Ukrainian highways.
We achieved these results by implementing NIBULON’s patriotic investment program to revive the Dnipro and the Southern Buh as Ukrainian transport arteries, which includes the construction of a network of modern transshipment terminals along the rivers, the revival of shipbuilding, the improvement of Ukrainian waterways as well as a number of efficient management decisions to arrange river cargo transportation.
“For the past years, the company has been implementing new logistics approaches to transport grain from NIBULON’s branches to the sea ports by river transport, i.e. combined cargo transportation, having increased annual volumes. This, in its turn, reduces traffic load on the Ukrainian highways, decreases harmful emissions to the atmosphere and enables the company to increase grain purchase prices not only at the facilities with the capacity to ship by water transport but also at the branches with the capacity to ship by railway transport. NIBULON plans to increase combined transportation by 50% both along the Dnipro and the Southern Buh”, says Oleksandr Shmakov, a head of the transport logistics department.
Due to the dredging of the Southern Buh conducted by NIBULON, 134 km of waterway became navigable. In 2016, for the first time in a quarter century, NIBULON’s vessel transported cargoes to Voznesensk (Mykolaiv region) along the Southern Buh River. The Dnipro dredging makes it possible to efficiently use the river’s potential, loading vessels to the designed draught, thereby increasing the quantity of cargoes transported by water transport.
In summer 2019, NIBULON put its new fully automated Ternivska branch transshipment terminal in Zaporizhzhia region into operation and conducted dredging of the Ploska Osokorivka River, having made its areas navigable again. During six months since Ternivska started its operations, the company has transported about 135 thousand tons of cargoes from Ternivska branch to the outer roads of Mykolaiv Sea Port.
“NIBULON’s cargo fleet plays a significant role in achieving these high results, in particular 21 tugs and 43 units of non-self-propelled cargo vessels. The company’s shipbuilders constantly improve shipbuilding designs; in particular, they build vessels with larger cargo capacity and high-capacity tugs. The shipping company consists of the non-self-propelled B2000 project vessels intended for cargo transportation along the Southern Buh, 100-m B5000 project vessels, pusher POSS-115 project tugs for linear transportation, and multipurpose tugs of 3,500 h.p. (T3500 project). The NIBULON MAX self-propelled floating vessel, the largest vessel in the company’s fleet, promotes an increase in cargo trips and transportation volumes. Having put the floating vessel into operation, NIBULON increased cargo transshipment efficiency and non-self-propelled vessel turnover”, mentions Oleksandr Taranovskyi, deputy director for economy at NIBULON’s shipping company.
At present the company builds at its own shipyard two new vessels, namely harbor T410 project tugs for pushing and docking operations as well as non-self-propelled B1500 project open type vessels. The non-self-propelled open type vessels with the cargo capacity of 1,500 tons are designed to transport containers, general and bulk cargoes, including sand, gravel, fertilizers, packaged cargoes, and timber. It is another step forward to expand cargo nomenclature and to increase NIBULON’s fleet efficiency. The harbor T410 project tugs, intended for pushing non-self-propelled vessels with the deadweight of up to 3 thousand tons, ensure cargo transportation in shallow water.
NIBULON plans to transport 4.5 million tons of cargoes by Ukrainian rivers in 2020, thereby reducing traffic load on the Ukrainian highways and saving state money for road repairs.