The Ministry of Infrastructure is considering creating a state-owned company to perform dredging operations under the control of independent companies. Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Yurii Lavreniuk announced this in an interview with the CFTS.

Commenting on the issue of Ministry of Infrastructure-controlled companies’ assets that are temporarily unavailability abroad, Lavreniuk said that Ukraine’s "Sea of Azov” dredger is located in Turkey. "It is a unique vessel that performs dredging operations. Because dredging is surrounded by so many scandals, we are considering creating our own state-owned company that will perform dredging operations under the control of independent companies," he said.

However, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority told the CFTS portal that it has a shortage of dredging equipment, but it is currently exploring the possibility of buying its own modern dredger that will be able to perform operational dredging in Ukrainian port waters.

According to the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, considering the volume of dredging work required by Ukrainian ports, the company's management is striving to open the dredging market as much as possible and reduce the cost of dredging work. "To this end, we are actively attracting foreign contractors with their own modern fleet for high-quality and fast performance of such tasks," a representative of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority said.

Only part of the dredging work will be performed by the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority’s own fleet of dredgers in 2017 because the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority does not have a sufficient number of dredgers. The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority’s own fleet currently consists of the following:

- a Skif non-self-propelled dredger, which includes an MZ-348 multicat vessel;

- a Meotida trailing suction hopper dredger;

- a Tiligulsky trailing suction hopper dredger;

- an Ingulsky trailing suction hopper dredger;

- a Rion dredging convoy, which includes a Rion multi-bucket dredger, a Krymska-3 hopper barge, a Krymska-9 hopper barge, and an MZ-318 multicat vessel.

However, the fleet requires constant repairs because it is significantly outdated. The only exceptions are the Meotida and Ingulsky dredgers, which were built in 2012.

As reported earlier, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority’s head Raivis Veckagans has said that the company will perform about 20 million cubic meters of dredging work in 2017. According to him, more than half of the work will be major dredging work. The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority plans to perform a total of 10.9 million cubic meters of dredging work at the Yuzhny and Chornomorsk ports in 2017, including 4.4 million cubic meters in the Yuzhny port’s waters and 3.45 million cubic meters in the approach canals of the ports. The remainder of the major dredging work will be performed at the Chornomorsk port. The Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority will hire third-party contractors to perform the major dredging works.