Reni Port May Lose Competitiveness After Sale of Giurgiulești Port to Romanian Operator

Deputies of the Reniysk City Council fear that the Ukrainian port may lose cargo and investment attractiveness even more.

The Reni City Council appealed to the central authorities due to the deterioration of the economic situation of the local port against the backdrop of increased competition on the Danube. This is reported by Bessarabia INFORM.

The deputies unanimously supported the corresponding appeal on March 27. The document notes that after the start of a full-scale war and the blockade of seaports, it was the Reniysk port that became one of the key elements of Ukrainian logistics. Exports of grain and oilseeds, as well as imports of food, containers, oil and petroleum products, passed through it.

In 2023, the port recorded record figures for the entire period of Ukraine’s independence: cargo handling reached 10.1 million tons, and the number of ship calls was 3,059 per year.

However, after the launch of the sea grain corridor, part of the cargo flow returned to the ports of Great Odesa, and transshipment in Reni began to decline. According to local deputies, this negative trend continues.

The city council believes that an additional blow to Reni’s position may be the strengthening of the neighboring port of Giurgiuleşti. This is an agreement under which in December 2025 the EBRD signed the sale of Danube Logistics, the operator of the port of Giurgiuleşti, to the Romanian state-owned company “Sea Ports Authority” JSC “Constanta”.

The new owner has already announced plans to invest in infrastructure, expand capacity and include the port in its own logistics network. According to the deputies, this creates a direct threat to the competitiveness of the Reni port.

Separately, the appeal emphasizes that the Reni port is already losing to its competitors in terms of the cost of calling ships. In terms of mandatory state fees, according to the deputies, it is the most expensive in comparison not only with Izmail, but also with foreign competing ports – Giurgiuleşti, Galati and Braila.

Another factor of pressure in Reni is the decision of the Moldovan authorities to grant the port of Giurgiuleşti the status of a strategic port infrastructure facility.

In their appeal, the deputies ask the authorities to take specific steps to improve the operating conditions of the port of Reni. In particular, they are talking about:

• cancellation of unjustified payments for transit through the water area of ​​the port of Izmail for vessels going to or from Reni;

• simplification of pilotage;

• optimization of cargo flow routes;

• coordination of tariff policy with Moldova;

• settlement of land issues to attract investment.

The Reni City Council insists that without such decisions, Ukraine risks weakening the position of one of the strategic ports of the Danube direction, which remains an important element of export logistics in wartime.

We will remind you that at the beginning of the month, the State Fund of the Republic of Moldova put up for auction a logistics and cargo storage site in the port of Reni.