Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority


Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority is a state company created in 2013 after the adoption of the law "On Sea Ports of Ukraine" and united all ports of Ukraine under one administration. Total throughput of 13 seaports in 2019 exceeded 160 million tons.
The mission of USPA is to facilitate the development of Ukraine's maritime transport infrastructure and increase the competitiveness of Ukrainian sea ports in the Azov-Black Sea basin by means of creating necessary conditions for the economic activity of maritime terminals and enterprises whose main products and/or raw materials are subject to exports-imports transactions being handled in the sea ports as cargo. There are other tasks of the USPA such as maintenance of the passport depths of the ports’ water areas and approach channels, quay wall mainatance, and safety of navigation.
Currently the company has control over 13 port authorities on territory of Ukraine; five more ports in Crimea were closed by the Government of Ukraine due to the 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. Navigational and piloting services are provided by USPA branch Delta Lotsman. Though, navigational equipment is serviced by separate entity Derzhhidrohrafiya which also provides information about territorial waters of Ukraine. Stevedoring and handling services are provided by both 13 state and around 90 private port operators.
In general, there are 13 seaports located on the continental part of Ukraine in the Black Sea and Azov basins, as well as the Danube Delta: Reni, Izmail, Ust-Dunaisk, Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky, Chornomorsk, Odesa, Pivdennyi, Mykolaiv, Olvia, Kherson, Skadovsk, Berdyansk, Mariupol, the total capacity of which is around 260 million tons per year. The length of the berthing front of the seaports is about, and the length of the channels and Deepwater Navigation Course reach . Even though port authorities practice "landlord-port" management model by providing public services to state and private stevedores and shipping lines, land management is actually executed by relevant regional or municipal authorities.
Today, the largest Ukrainian seaports are Pivdennyi, Odesa, Mykolaiv and Chornomorsk, which account for about 80% of the total throughput of Ukrainian seaports. The key advantages of these seaports are the availability of deep-water approaches that enable the service of large-capacity marine vessels, including the involvement of private entities in providing handling services. Other seaports of Ukraine can accept vessels with a lower draft, and servicing of cargo flows in which, in vast majority, is provided by stevedoring companies of state ownership.
A number of ferry lines also operates in Ukraine, sea container lines connecting Ukraine with the ports of the Black Sea basin, and is an integral part of the international transport corridors: TRACECA, New Silk Road, Pan-European No. 9 and others. Major multimodal port is Chornomorsk with its ferry-railway multimodal terminal with services to Port, Batumi, Varna, and number of Turkish ports.
The servicing of container lines is currently provided by container terminals located in the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi with their total capacity of 3 130 thousand TEU per year. The indicated volume will be increased in the nearest future by 600 thousand TEU due to the newly created capacities of the container terminal at the Quarantine Mole of the Port of Odesa.
Servicing of passenger and cruise vessels on international and domestic lines is carried out by passenger terminals in the ports of Reni, Izmail and Ust-Dunaisk, as well as a passenger complex in Port of Odesa.
Starting 2018, USPA was assigned a function to maintain navigation characteristics on inland waterways, namely on Dnipro, Pripyat', and other rivers by executing number of activities, including dredging. For that purpose, USPA new branch "Dredging Fleet" was established.
International cooperation
In 2018 Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority joined European Sea Ports Organisation as an observer member, in 2019 - European Federation of Inland Ports. Since 2017 USPA has established partnership agreement with EBRD on preparation of two pilot concession projects in the ports of Kherson and Olvia. In 2019 USPA signed a MoU with Port of Antwerp International.
Entities governed by USPA
;Operators
;Regional Logistics and Support