Romania to Help Ukraine Export Grain by Building Anchorage for Ships
Romania will help Ukraine export grain by creating an anchorage in the port of Constanta, which is scheduled to be completed in March 2024, Dmytro Moskalenko, CEO of the state-owned Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company, said on Facebook.
"In March next year, we plan to launch an additional anchorage for Ukrainian agricultural products in Constanta. The agreement was reached in Romania at a meeting on increasing the export capacity of Ukrainian Danube ports," Moskalenko said.
According to him, discussions on the creation of anchorages with Romanian colleagues began in September. Currently, due to the opening of Odesa ports, the flow of agricultural products across the Danube has decreased. However, the issue of the "backup" direction of agricultural exports has not lost its relevance, and the Danube may again become the main one.
Moskalenko emphasises that in January and February, the Romanian side promises to hold a tender and develop a regulatory framework to put the car park into operation in March. "We hope that the conditions for using the car park will be market-based and transparent," he added.
In addition, an agreement was reached with Romania on an online queue for barge handling in Constanta, which will make the work more predictable.
"Both decisions have been expected for a long time. Barge downtime in Constanta means additional costs for cargo owners and a catastrophic loss of fleet efficiency," Moskalenko explained.
As a reminder, in 2023, Ukrainian ports on the Danube increased cargo handling by 2.2 times to 27.6 million tonnes compared to the same period last year.
In October, Ukraine and Romania signed a number of strategic partnership documents. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis assured his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Romania and its society are determined to support Ukraine in a multilateral and meaningful way, including with military assistance, until the Russian aggressor is defeated, all territory is liberated and all perpetrators of crimes are brought to justice, and then in the process of recovery and reconstruction.
In addition, the Presidents signed a joint declaration on cooperation between the countries, including security, logistics, and economic cooperation. The document also refers to the simplification of border crossing procedures and the opening of new border crossing points.