Opening of the port of Mykolaiv depends on political will, — Nibulon

The port of Mykolaiv is ready for work, but it is possible to resume ship calls to it only with the appropriate political agreements.

This was stated by the Director of Logistics of Nibulon Sergey Kalkutin in an interview with USM.

“From the point of view of legal issues, I may be wrong, but there are no obstacles. If political and geopolitical agreements are reached, and there is a physical possibility of ships entering the port, this process can be implemented in a fairly short time. I do not see any particular legal difficulties,” he commented.

Kalkutin recalled that the ports of Odessa were opened quite quickly, as soon as the appropriate political decisions were made and the Armed Forces of Ukraine guaranteed the security of the corridor.

“Therefore, at our level, we can only hope and be ready for the opening of the port from a technical point of view,” noted the Director of Logistics of Nibulon.

Most likely, work in the port will become possible only after the end of active hostilities. After all, the enemy is now on the Kinburn Spit, and it is through this section that the entire fleet must pass to the Mykolaiv port.

“Nibulon” is fully ready to resume the port’s work. According to Kalkutin, the company is ready to start loading the ship an hour and a half after it is moored.

In war conditions, when Mykolaiv is actually in the front line, part of the Nibulon fleet remains blocked there. Its use on the Voznesensk-Mykolaiv section could be possible. This would significantly relieve the roads, because Voznesensk has always been a logistics hub for the agricultural holding. It is very well located on transport highways, and there was an opportunity to accumulate goods there, delivering them to the port by water transport.

But due to the blockade of the Mykolaiv port, this scheme is currently economically inoperative and is not considered viable. So far, Nibulon is waiting for the opening of the Mykolaiv port, or for a change in UZ’s tariff policy, which would allow it to compete with road transport in this region through combined water-rail transportation. USM previously reported that ports on the Danube are losing their competitiveness.