Restored UDS tugs are already working on the Danube

The restored 3,000-strong “Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company” is already successfully operating on the Lower and Middle Danube.

Three-thousanders are the company’s most powerful pusher tugs. The shipping industry has eight such ships, five of which have been idle for more than 15 years. Two more three-thousanders have fallen into disrepair in recent years.

“Another year or two and we would have lost this class of ships altogether, because the ships, as a rule, do not return after a long layover, turning into scrap metal. Last year, we decided to restore the fleet of three thousand. After all, this is an opportunity to form caravans not from 6, but from 9 barges, which increases the profitability of the voyage. A full range of works was carried out to restore the propeller-steering system of the two ships, repair the main and auxiliary engines, mechanisms, and the hull,” said the acting head of the UDS Dmytro Moskalenko.

Already in 2023, UDS returned to operation the tugboats “Cherkasy” (“Nina Sosnina”) and “Odesa” (“Nykyfor Sholudenko”). So:

• The three-thousander “Odesa” (captain Serhiy Stanislavovich Vit) has already completed the first flight to Constanta after the repair.

• The steamship “Cherkasy” (captain Ihor Mykolayovych Balan) with a caravan of 9 barges and a load of agglomerate is heading to the port of Smederevo.

• Now the third three-thousandth vessel – the steamship “Mykolaiv” (“Kuzma Galkin”) can be safely sent for dock repair with renewal of the Register documents.