Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA), the biggest German container terminals operator based in Hamburg, has completed a new project in the Port of Odessa worth 20 million euros. Its Ukrainian subsidiary, Container Terminal Odessa (CTO), has finished the construction of the 4th launch complex of a new container terminal on the Quarantine Pier of Odessa Sea Port.
A briefing presentation of the completion of the project took place within the framework of the international transport forum TRANS EXPO-2020 (report from the press service of the German Group).
The 4th launch complex is a 6-lane platform for storage and handling of containers, with all communications and lighting, equipped with modern Liebcherr pneumatic gantry container cranes. According to the German side, the total investment in this facility amounted to more than 20 million euros.
Today we are presenting the successful implementation of the next stage of investment within the framework of the project to expand the container terminal at the Quarantine pier, which gives us a" plus "the terminal's capacity of 300 thousand TEU.
Anastas Kokkin, General Director of CTO
According to the head of the company, the completion of the construction of the 4th launch complex was another step towards the implementation of the plan to create a high-tech container terminal in the port of Odessa with a capacity of more than 1.2 million TEU per year.
To date, the German side has already invested more than 120 million euros in the project. In addition to infrastructure investments, in order to improve the quality of service for clients and achieve maximum efficiency and manufacturability in work, Container Terminal Odessa invests in innovative technologies. Currently, a project is being implemented to introduce a state-of-the-art web portal for the transition to electronic document management and maximum optimization of basic procedures for the terminal's clients, including a dramatic reduction in the time required to process the entry of freight vehicles.
Anastas Kokkin, General Director of CTO
He added that the new service using the web portal meets the advanced European standards and is certified by the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine.
In turn, Svetlana Yarovaya, Vice President for Social and Political Relations of CTO and Hamburger Ambassador in Ukraine, confirmed the continuity of the HHLA course towards the development of its projects in Ukraine.
In particular, in addition to investing in the expansion of the container terminal on the Quarantine Pier, this year the German partners announced the creation of the Ukrainian Intermodal Company (UIC), which will develop container rail transportation, to and from the Odessa port. For this purpose, CTO is implementing an investment project to double the terminal's capacity to handle regular container trains.
As an honorary representative of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg in Odessa, I would like to note that the German company HHLA of the Hamburg port with a turnover of more than 1.25 billion euros, is a systemic and most powerful German investor in the maritime transport industry of Ukraine. Today, in the most difficult economic conditions, connected with an epidemiological quarantine situation, Hamburg not only did not stop its investments, but is also doing everything possible to increase cargo turnover and attract new customers.
Svetlana Yarovaya, Vice President for Social and Political Relations
It is worth reminding that the subsidiary company Container Terminal Odessa (until 2017, subsidiary "GPK-Ukraine") is the largest operator of port container handling in Ukraine. According to the results of last year, CTO handled almost 5 million tons of container and general cargo. At the same time, 391.4 thousand TEUs were handled (+ 15.8% to the level of 2018).
The company has been operating a container terminal at the Quarantine pier of the Odessa port since 2001. The company has been implementing the terminal expansion project together with the USPA represented by the Odessa port administration since 2019. The first and second start-up complexes of the project, which include, incl. new state berths 1-k and 2-k, put into operation in autumn 2014.
CTO is one of the largest taxpayers of the Odessa region: in 2018, the company transferred UAH 390 million to the budgets of all levels. At the end of 2019, "Container Terminal Odessa" took second place in the international rating of leaders of the Black Sea container terminals.
