The board chairman of the Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company (UDP), Dmytro Barynov, has held talks with Voestalpine AG in Vienna (Austria), during which agreement was reached on using UDP’s vessels to transport ore pellets from the Poltava ore mining and processing plant to the Voestalpine’s production facilities in Linz (Austria) in 2015. The press service of the company announced this to the Center for Transport Strategies.

The shipping company did not specify the expected transport volumes because, according to its press service, this depends on the availability of cargo. According to the UDP, Ferrexpo AG, which owns a 97.34% stake in the Poltava ore mining and processing plant, is considering various logistical options for pellets in 2015, including transportation through the port of Izmail.

In September, the press service of the state-owned Izmail Commercial Seaport announced the signing of a contract for monthly transshipment of 63,000 tons of ore pellets from the Poltava ore mining and processing plant intended for Linz in the fourth quarter of this year. The port provided significant discounts on cargo handling operations to the Poltava ore mining and processing plant.

As reported, the logistical scheme for delivery of ore pellets from the Poltava ore mining and processing plant to Linz (Komsomolsk-Yuzhny-Koper-Linz) changed in April 2014, with Izmail dropping out. The volume of processing of this cargo at the Danube port was 30,000-35,000 tons per month (12-15% of the total cargo turnover) in 2013. The port’s management announced its intention to compensate for the loss of this cargo with iron-ore concentrate from the ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih and ore pellets from the Severny ore mining and processing plant.

In July this year, UDP’s new head Barynov promised to fight to return pellet cargoes from the Poltava ore mining and processing plant and steel slabs from the Alchevsk iron and steel works jointly with the managements of the Administration of Seaports of Ukraine and the Izmail port.