Freight News, Logistics, Rail, Sea

Ukraine freight continues to move, says FIATA

[ March 22, 2022   //   Chris ]

Unsurprisingly, the Ukrainian conflict has severely affected multimodal transport to and from the country but some traffic is continuing to move, according to a delegate from FIATA’s Multimodal Transport Institute and member of its Sea working group.

While Ukraine’s  seaports and Dnieper river ports are “practically blocked”, the Danube ports of Reni and Izmail remain open. These are however unable to handle all Ukrainian import and export cargo flows and operations are reduced due to the conflict, firstly in terms of capacity and secondly due to the caution of foreign carriers.

Most calls are by Ukrainian-flagged vessels, which are currently not allowed to leave the country with Ukrainian male crew members under the age of 65. The same holds true for road transport, which is also more expensive.

FIATA says a multimodal corridor currently exists, with a rail leg in Ukraine, passing through Moldova and entering Romania before ending in Galati’s Port Bazinul Nou terminal in the south-east of the country. Port Bazinul Nou could accommodate around 50,000 tonnes of transit cargo in open storage, subject to obtaining permission from the Romanian customs authorities which local freight forwarders have been actively working to facilitate with the authorities.

FIATA notes that it is also possible to reach west European ports via the Danube and the Main and Rhine rivers, is also noted.

FIATA adds that there has also been an increase in requests for moving transit cargo through the land bridge between the Bulgarian seaports of Varna and Ruse inland port. Until now, this little-used corridor was regarded only as an alternative in the case of congestion on the busy waterway via the Cherna Voda-Constanta canal.

Tags: FIATA