Ukraine and Romania are working on introducing night navigation on the Sulina

Ukraine and Romania are discussing increasing the throughput of the Sulina Canal.

This was reported by the director of the Izmail Sea Commercial Port, Vitaliy Nikula, in an interview with Ukrinform.

One of the possible solutions is the introduction of night passage of vessels, which will allow increasing the volume of export and import transportation through the Danube ports.

Nikula said that the Danube ports have encountered a seasonal shallowing of the river, which significantly limits the possibilities of transporting goods.

“Today we are in such a situation that the Danube ports have encountered a seasonal drop in the water level in the Danube. Currently, it is catastrophically low. For example, those barges that can take 2-2.5 thousand tons of grain, we are now loading a maximum of 750-800 tons,” Nikula noted.

At the same time, another problem remains the limited throughput of the canals connecting the Danube with the Black Sea.

In particular, the Sulin Canal is currently one of the key routes for ships to enter Ukrainian Danube ports. It allows ships with a draft of up to 7 m to pass, ensuring the transportation of both export and import cargo.

According to Nikula, Ukraine and Romania are negotiating to increase the capacity of the canal. One possible solution is to introduce night navigation of ships, which would allow for an increase in cargo transshipment volumes.

“We hope that night navigation will be launched in the near future. This will allow us to increase cargo turnover and process more cargo for both export and import,” the port director noted.

He added that the relevant ministries of Ukraine and Romania, as well as the Sea Ports Authority of Ukraine, are carrying out the relevant work.

Separately, Nikula stressed the need for investments in the modernization of the transshipment equipment of the Izmail port.

According to him, the company maintains the existing equipment in good condition, but updating the transshipment fleet would increase the port’s efficiency.

Earlier, USM reported that Sulina already applies priority to vessels carrying vegetable oil.