Since the beginning of the year, Ukrainian domestic ports handled 772.3 thousand TEU, an increase of 8.3%. Containers cargo is consistently among the five key cargoes of Ukraine, second only to grain, ore and ferrous metals. Today the share of containers cargo accounts for 8% of the total cargo turnover (calculated in tons).

In total, 772 270 TEU passed through the ports of Ukraine from January to September 2020. Container turnover during this period increased by 8.3% compared to the same period last year, or almost 60 thousand TEU. Despite the fact that a significant reduction in volumes was predicted for container traffic at the beginning of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, there was a constant increase in container handling in domestic ports throughout the year. There is already confidence that by the end of the year, container handling in Ukraine will again overcome 1 million TEU.

Let us recall that Ukraine handled its first million containers in 2007 (1.067 million TEU). And in 2008, a record transshipment of 1.25 million TEU was achieved. But then the global crisis broke out, and already in 2009 the container turnover in Ukraine decreased by almost 60%. The gradual recovery of container flows after the crisis was interrupted in 2014, when there was an armed conflict in the Donbas and the annexation of Crimea. Then the transshipment of containers in the ports of Ukraine dropped again to 520 thousand TEU. The growth in transshipment was restored only in 2016. Since then, container turnover in Ukrainian ports has been steadily growing for the fifth year.

The coronavirus pandemic, which has swept the whole world, has made its own adjustments to the market for container shipping through domestic ports. Since the beginning of the year, when a difficult situation arose with the ban on exports from China, imports to Ukraine dropped sharply, and then the market was reoriented towards exports. As a reminder, in the first quarter of 2020, the volume of container exports increased by 21%. Today, the usual ties between producers and consumers are improving, and as a result, the balance between export and import container traffic is gradually leveling out.

Structure of container flows

According to the results of nine months, the import of containers reached 384 496 TEU, export - 387 221 TEU. The difference between them was reduced to 2,725 TEU. The ratio of import and export in the total container turnover almost leveled off and is estimated at 49.8% to 50.2%. However, the export volumes of containers continue to grow slightly faster (+ 8.7%) than the import volumes (+ 7.9%).

Source and picture: Ports of Ukraine