Ukraine's Nibulon extends grain transshipment contract with Romania's TTS

MOSOW. July 30 (Interfax) - Nibulon, one of Ukraine's largest grain market operators, and Romania's Transport Trade Services (TTS) have extended a grain transshipment contract for a new season, Ukrainian media outlets said with a reference to the grain trader's press service.

This decision became a logical continuation of the two years of productive cooperation between the two companies, the press service said. During this time, TTS transshipped 3.5 million tonnes of Nibulon's cargo. The new contract envisages transshipment of 1.6 million tonnes of grain in this season already.

At present, the CNFR NAVROM SA company transported food-grade wheat from Izmail, Odessa region to Romania's Constanta, and then TTS Operator S.R.L transshipped 63,000 tonnes of cargo on the Wadi Tiba bulk carrier using a crane vessel. In addition, TTS ensured the delivery and loading of 30,000 tonnes of rapeseed on the Amalia vessel. The third vessel is expected to arrive this week, and 32,500 tonnes of Ukrainian feed wheat are to be loaded on it.

"We have established an effective partnership with the TTS company in the past two years. The implementation of a complex solution with a consistent and steady cargo flow enables optimizing the process and reducing our delivery expenses, thanks to which were are trying to compete with the Greater Odessa ports. As part of this cooperation we are trying to maintain the shipment volumes we reached. With a declining cost of freight rates from the Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea, the logistics chain of Danube-Constanta shipments becomes $10 more expensive compared to the Greater Odessa ports. This is why it is important to find opportunities to organize a steadier shipment flow and minimize expenses on all stages of our logistic chain to Constanta," Nibulon Logistics Director Sergei Kalkutin said.

Nibulon was established in 1991. It owned 27 transshipment terminals and complexes for receiving crops with combined storage capacity of 2.25 million tonnes, and a fleet of 83 vessels, including 23 tugboats, before the start of the crisis. The company also owned the Nikolayev Shipyard.

Before the crisis, Nibulon cultivated 82,000 hectares of land in 12 regions of Ukraine and exported agricultural products to over 70 countries. The company's exports of agricultural products peaked at 5.64 million tonnes in 2021, including 700,000 tonnes in August, 1.88 million tonnes in the second quarter, and 3.71 million tonnes in the second half of the year.

Nibulon now operates at 32% of capacity and it has moved its headquarters from Nikolayev to Kiev.