The Austrian shipyard is modernizing the UDS fleet

“Ukrainian Danube Shipping” signed a contract with the Austrian shipyard ÖSWAG for the modernization of the first self-propelled vessel.

The capital modernization of the traction fleet of UDS was being prepared since 2022, said the head of the company Dmytro Moskalenko. Since then, the company has been looking for a solution among the Danube shipyards, and in the summer of 2022 signed an agreement with ÖSWAG.

“At the same time, at our plant, we were preparing for modernization the first batch of self-propelled vessels that had been idle for a long time. We agreed on project decisions and ordered a project from ÖSWAG, because it was the Austrians who designed and built the self-propelled fleet, which is planned to be modernized in the first stage,” Moskalenko noted.

Modernization works will start next year — in the format of a pilot project. At the same time, according to Moskalenko, the work on the transformation of UDP will continue — asset assessment and independent audit of the UDS group, transition to the international financial reporting system, consolidation of companies of the UDS group, implementation of corporate reform.

“Successful completion of the transformation will be the basis for receiving investments from international donors and scaling the experience of the modernization pilot project to the entire UDS traction fleet. The technical details of the modernization, which involves the replacement of engines, are a topic for a separate big conversation,” the company summarized.