ASK Ukrrichflot PAT : Prospects of Freight Traffic on Dnipro

The problem of restoring navigation on the river Dnipro has been recently discussed more and more often. After all, this natural 'river road' that does not need to be covered with asphalt and repaired is currently hardly used for cargo traffic.

What action has to be taken to change the situation was discussed by the participants of Freight Traffic on the River Dnipro international conference, which took place on May 16, 2016 in Kyiv.

Olga Fedor, head of Commercial Department of JSSC Ukrrichflot and the company's speaker at the conference, analyzed the change in the volumes of cargo traffic on the river Dnipro in the last 10 years. The figures demonstrate a stepwise process - from the initial growth in volume during the period of 2004 to 2007 to its deep decline from 2008 to 2013 and insignificant restoration in the last two years. This results from the imbalance in Ukraine's transport system, which is significantly skewed in favor of railway and motor transport.

Actually, 15 % of Dnieper's infrastructure are used today, and the relative share of internal freight traffic using waterways is 0.5 %. At the same time, in the EU this figure is 7 % on average. It is obvious that Ukraine has an immense potential for growth.

According to Olga Fedor's assessment, the river industry can be raised to a higher level, the volumes of freight traffic increased. To do this, it is necessary to carry out the following work on the state level: pass a Law on internal water transport, implement a system of inter-industry transport balances and amend certain regulatory acts of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, which will allow settling controversial issues in the industry.

Ukrrichflot's experts are sure that the introduction of the program proposed will yield a number of positive practical effects:

- ground infrastructure, which already fails to handle the volumes of transportation, especially during the peak load period, will be unloaded. A part of the freight traffic flows will be redirected to the river from railway and motor transport;

- the opportunity to attract investment in the construction of new stevedore facilities at the river infrastructure will appear;

- related industries, particularly shipbuilding, will start to develop;

- new workplaces will be created;

- using river transport, the most environmentally friendly of all, will allow decreasing CОatmospheric emissions.

The participation in the conference, the meetings and discussions at it were fruitful. They set a vector for further and the best actions to develop the water transport complex of Ukraine.