The Pivdennyi Port Authority has revised its discount on port dues for ships entering the Pivdennyi seaport to perform operations involving loading and unloading of grain cargoes.

The Ukrainian Seaports Authority (USPA) announced this in a statement, the CFTS portal reports.

The 30% discount on all types of port dues levied by the USPA will be granted to ships calling at the Pivdennyi seaport to perform operations involving loading or unloading of general and bulk (grain) cargo from 1 January 2022.

The decision to introduce the discount was made in accordance with the Pivdennyi Port Authority’s order No. 195/27 dated 13 October 2021.

Grain cargoes include grains, legumes, and oilseeds used for food, seed, fodder, and technical purposes, as well as the byproducts of their processing.

The 30% discount will be granted if the following criteria are met: loading and unloading of grain cargo; bulk and general grain cargo (bags and big bags); performance of cargo operations in the seaport’s berths.

According to the statement, the discounts on port dues do not apply to administrative charges.

According to the USPA, the Pivdennyi seaport has established uniform, transparent, and non-discriminatory conditions and criteria for granting discounts on port dues.

The large investments in the development of the seaport and the need to ensure recoupment of these investments since the Soviet era have historically meant that the basic rates of the tonnage and canal dues in the seaport are significantly higher than the rates in the other seaports in Greater Odesa. However, to ensure that the seaport is attractive, the government decrees Nos. 442 and 1544 and the Ministry of Infrastructure’s order No. 316) authorized the granting of discounts on the base rates of the port dues even before the USPA was established.

At the same time, the discounts granted in the seaport have ranged from 0% to 50% over the decades.

Uniform, transparent, and non-discriminatory conditions and criteria for granting discounts were drafted and adopted this year based on the results of a thorough analysis. Given the same depth conditions, the same level of discounts on port dues is established for all ships calling at the seaport to load and unload general and bulk grain cargo at any berth in the seaport, regardless of their ownership form, port operator, etc.

Considering the above, the Pivdennyi Port Authority issued the order No. 195/27 dated 13 October 2021. The order will enter into effect on 1 January 2022 to allow market participants to be informed in advance and allow the fulfillment of contractual obligations.

The next step that the USPA plans to implement in the near future involves the performance of a similarly comprehensive analysis of the external and competitive conditions and introduction of uniform, transparent, comprehensible, and non-discriminatory criteria, the procedure for granting discounts, and the level of discounts for other groups of cargo in the Pivdennyi seaport.

As reported earlier, the Ministry of Infrastructure proposed in August this year that canal dues should be abolished for vessels with drafts of up to 4 meters. The relevant draft order takes account of the Ministry of Economy’s statement that only vessels stipulated in the “Procedure for Managing Ships Sailing under the Flag of Ukraine in Ukraine’s Inland Waterways” should be exempted from canal dues, which would give a less favorable treatment for foreign service providers compared with domestic ones.