Ukraine grain shipments through Romania's Constanta down in January
19/02/2024 12:58
By Luiza Ilie
BUCHAREST, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Ukrainian grain shipments
through Romania's Black Sea port of Constanta fell 38%
year-on-year in January, port data showed, raising concern among
operators that export routes created since Russia's invasion
will languish as Kyiv uses its own ports more.
Ukraine is one of the world's biggest grain exporters, and
Constanta has become Kyiv's largest alternative export route
since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, with grains
arriving by road, rail and barge across the Danube.
Its exports through Constanta, non-existent before the war,
stood at 8.6 million metric tons in 2022 and surged to 14
million tons last year, aided both by European Union-funded
investment in the port and by operators adding equipment.
But its transit volumes fell to 436,000 tons in January from
700,000 tons in January 2023, the port authority told Reuters.
"The perception among operators is that volumes are
dropping, Ukraine's corridor through its own ports is working,"
Viorel Panait, the manager of Constanta port operator Comvex
CMVX.BX , told Reuters.
Ukraine created a shipping corridor from its own ports in
August, which hugs the western Black Sea coast near Romania and
Bulgaria, shortly after Russia withdrew from a U.N.-brokered
Black Sea grain export deal.
Panait, who is also president of the Constanta Port Business
Association, said new grain export control mechanisms introduced
by Kyiv last year to prevent tax avoidance were contributing to
the slowdown.
He added Romanian port operators, logistics and railroad
companies had all invested to increase capacity to handle
Ukrainian grain, while EU-funded support schemes were also
underway.
"There is a concern that these export routes, established in
the last two years, will be lost. Given the equivalent shipping
costs through Ukrainian ports and Constanta, a rational way to
preserve the new flows ... would be prudent," he added.
However, some market analysts said they expected volumes to
kick back up in the spring.
"We are seeing a market lull, Ukrainian farmers are
hesitating to sell at such low prices, but exports will resume
in March-April," Cezar Gheorghe of Romanian grain market
consultancy AGRIColumn told Reuters.
He estimated Romanian farmers would have an exportable
surplus of 20-22 million tons of grains in the 2024/25 season.
In January, the U.S. State Department's Assistant Secretary
for European and Eurasian Affairs Jim O'Brien said he expected
Romania would remain Ukraine's largest alternative export route
for grains and other goods, behind its own ports.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie
Editing by Mark Potter)
((luiza.ilie@thomsonreuters.com; +4021 527 0312; https://www.reuters.com/journalists/luiza-ilie))