UDS plans to increase river transportation to over 3 million tons per year
29.09.2025 - 10:44
In particular, as part of the plan to increase transportation, it is necessary to modernize another 25 tugboats and organize the transfer of the fleet for lease.
This was stated by the General Director of PJSC “Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company” Ihor Chertov in an interview with Ukrinform.
According to him, since July, UDS has optimized costs and, thanks to this, has maintained its competitiveness. Thus, in May 2025, 34.6 thousand tons were transported, in June – already 58.3 thousand, in July – 61.3 thousand, and in August the figure more than doubled and amounted to 116.4 thousand tons.
He also noted that UDP plans to increase river transportation to over 3 million tons per year.
“This is possible through the modernization of vessels: we are already preparing projects for the modernization of 25 tugboats, the restoration of the production base of the Kiliya plant, the creation of a modern training complex for training crews. After all, without people and equipment, there will be no future.
In addition, we are actively looking for partners to whom we can lease part of the fleet,” said Igor Chertov.
The director of UDS emphasized that under current conditions, the shipping company cannot operate effectively without significant capital investments, and UDP currently does not have the necessary funds.
“But if we lease the ships, the charterer will bear the costs of their repair. This will make it possible to resume the operation of the ships, return them to the market and receive profit from the lease. Thus, it will be possible to preserve and repair the fleet, load it with work, without spending our own resources, which are currently lacking. So, we are currently negotiating a bareboat charter of passenger and sea vessels, looking for any legal mechanisms to preserve the liquidity of the shipping company,” shared the head of the company.Earlier, USM reported that the first meeting of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company took place in early September.
