The President of AMEU shared his opinion on the concession of the terminal in the port of Chornomorsk
8.10.2025 - 13:02
Recently, the Ministry of Development and Trade announced a competition for a concession in the port of Chornomorsk, which will last for six months. Business believes that the project lacks transparency.
This was reported by the president of the Association of International Forwarders of Ukraine (AMEU), Viktor Berestenko.
He recalled that, according to officials, the concession project provides for over $ 1.1 billion in revenue to the budgets, the provision of over 1,000 jobs, as well as the prospect of resuming container transportation up to 500 thousand TEU.
According to the president of AMEU, such figures are impressive, but so far it looks more like a marketing campaign than a transparent investment project.
“The figures announced are only from the words of officials. The level of trust in such sources in business, to put it mildly, is not the highest. No open project, financial model or forecast. Instead of transparency, there is just a beautiful information campaign. It seems that the state is not able to effectively manage assets, and instead of development, it decides to “get rid of” while there is still something. Perhaps this is dictated by the actual activity figures, but no one shows them either,” Viktor Berestenko noted.
In particular, he drew attention to the fact that in 2024, Ukrainian ports processed only 129 thousand TEU. The throughput capacity is over 3.5 million TEU, and the operational load is less than 4%.
“Where did they get +500 thousand? A container is just a container. Its cost depends not on the amount of metal, but on what is inside. And inside is cargo that is created by the economy, not PR posts. And how many people are needed for a terminal for 500 thousand TEU? We are told – 1,000 jobs. And how many people work at other terminals? Is this another “beautiful figure” or a real calculation?”, – emphasized the president of AMEU.
He concluded that he wants to see real investments, new jobs created, healthy competition and a reduction in the cost of logistics for the Ukrainian economy, as well as infrastructure development – “not in slides, but in reality.”
As previously reported by USM, the concession project included the First and Container Terminals of the Port of Chornomorsk with six deep-water berths and all infrastructure.
