The Ukrainian Ministry of Development of Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure is continuing to prepare the assets of the Chornomorsk seaport for concession.
Ruslan Sakhautdinov, the head of the Chornomorsk Port Authority, announced this during the Grain Ukraine 2024 conference, the CFTS portal reports citing the Ukrport Association.
“It is a large territory. A feasibility study has already been prepared. It is now in the approval phase. We believe this is a great opportunity to breathe new life into this territory. It will be a completely different opportunity, technically and technologically,” Sakhautdinov said.
According to him, the assets being readied for concession are the port’s berths 1-6. The reconstruction of the port’s berths 7, 8, and 9 will begin in 2025. In addition, the reconstruction of the transport interchange around the port will start in a few days.
As previously reported, it has been announced that concession tenders will be announced in 2024. Work on concession projects for the assets of the Chornomorsk Commercial Seaport resumed in April 2023. These are projects and separate tenders for the port’s Terminal No. 1, Container Terminal, and Ferry Terminal.
In general, the process of preparation for the implementation of concession projects in the Chornomorsk seaport began even before Russia's full-scale invasion. The announcement of the concession tenders was planned for 2022, but it did not happen because of the war. The relevant ministry resumed the process in the spring of 2023. The first phase of the preparation process is the drafting of the feasibility study, and the second phase is the organization of concession tenders. At that time, the ministry announced the preparation of tenders for the concession of the Chornomorsk seaport’s Terminal No. 1, Container Terminal, and Terminal No. 5.
The preparation of the feasibility study is funded by the Global Infrastructure Facility, with experts and consultants provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
As the CFTS portal also reported, the Danish shipping company Moller-Maersk has expressed interest in concessioning a container terminal in the port of Chornomorsk. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister/Minister of Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure Development Oleksandr Kubrakov stated in June 2023 that five major companies had already expressed interest in public-private partnership (PPP) projects at the Chornomorsk seaport.
