Ukraine
For many centuries, the most important trade routes connecting the countries of the world passed through the territory of Ukraine. For example, the Great Silk Road, as well as the famous route from the Varangians to the Greeks. Its favourable geographical location and its access both to the Black Sea and to the Sea of Azov played a critical role.
Today, there are nine Trans-European Transport Corridors, and four of them pass through Ukrainian territory. They are Trans-European Transport Corridors III (from Berlin to Kyiv), V (from Trieste up to L’viv), VII (Danube, water) and IX (from Helsinki up to Alexandropoulos). Corridor IX, the most important of them, provides transport between ports of the Baltic Sea, the White Sea and the Black Sea with the Eastern Mediterranean. The lay out of this Corridor results in the Greater European Communications Ring: Stockholm-Hamburg-Lisbon-Trieste-Bucharest-Kyiv-Moscow-Helsinki.
The Danube Corridor, Rhine-Main-Danube, together with the Volga-Don and Volga-Baltic, routes comprises the Greater European Shipping Ring. It ensures access to the Arctic Ocean and the Caspian Sea. The Black Sea corridor is another prospective transport corridor passing through Istanbul, Constanta, Dnipropetrivs’k, Donets’k, Novorosiys’k, Ankara, and other cities. Today, just as it was centuries ago, access to the Black Sea is a most significant factor in the development of Ukrainian transport.
There are 18 sea trade ports in Ukraine. Three of them are actively developing container transportation: Odesa, Illichivs’k and Mariupol’.
The Port of Odesa is one of the largest ports of the Black Sea/Sea of Azov Basin and the largest in Ukraine. Its capacity allows for the processing of 38 million tons of freight annually. The container terminal is developing the most rapidly; its area is 125,000 square meters with a capacity of 7,000 TEUs (the equivalent of a 20-foot container). 120 refrigerated containers connected to the general city electric network can be stored on this territory at one time. The terminal’s reserve capacity is more than 150,000 TEU’s per year.
The Port of Illichivs’k is situated 12 miles to the south-west of Odesa. The port is an integral part of the 9th International Transport Corridor of the European Union and the Baltic-Black Sea Corridor. The total capacity of the port is 24 million tons of cargo per year. The container terminal of the port was built in 1976. Phased implementation of the 4M plan has begun – a core upgrade of the container terminal with its capacity reaching up to 4 million TEU’s per year. During the first stage, the capacity is planned to reach as much as 600,000 TEU’s annually.
The Port of Mariupol is one of the four largest ports of Ukraine. It is the biggest and best equipped port of the Sea of Azov; its capacity is enough to process up to 12 million tons of freight annually. The port has a new highly productive container terminal, which guarantees rapid processing of container vessels. The terminal capacity is up to 50,000 TEUs per year.
