Seaports of Ukraine processed more than 46 million tons of cargo in January-October

This happened despite the withdrawal of the Russian Federation from the Grain Agreement on July 17 and the efforts of the aggressor country to block sea transportation

In January-October 2023, the sea ports of Ukraine increased cargo transshipment by 13.2% compared to the same period in 2022 – up to 46.2 million tons. Administration of Seaports of Ukraine (USPA) informs about it.

«For 10 months of this year, seaports of Ukraine processed more than 46 million tons of cargo. This is 5.4 million tons more than in the same period of 2022,» the report says.

Sea freight exceeded the previous year’s figure despite Russia’s withdrawal from the Grain Agreement on July 17 and the aggressor country’s attempts to block sea transportation.

In January-October, port operators increased transshipment of export cargo by 22.8% yoy to 41.7 million tons. Export transportation accounted for 90.2% of the total transshipment volume.

The ports handled the most grain cargo – 34.9 mln tons. This is almost 70% more than in the same period last year.

Another notable part of exports is iron and steel cargo. According to rough estimates, in September, four ships that had been blocked in the ports earlier exported more than 90,000 tons of steel products and more than 170,000 tons of iron ore concentrate from Odesa and Pivdennyi.

Later, «new» iron anf steel exports went through the corridor (rather than cargoes stuck in ports at the beginning of the Russian invasion in late February-2022), followed by empty bulk carriers coming to Ukrainian seaports. According to industry sources, in October, MMC exports through seaports tentatively amounted to:

• port Odessa – 2 vessels with 213.5 thousand tons of steel products left;
• port Pivdenniy – 4 vessels with 507 thousand tons of iron ore left.

More about maritime export corridor of Ukraine in the GMK Center article.