"The ports of the Danube were not at all designed for the flow of grain shipment that arose due to the war, (as a result) constant queues, in March there was even a significant accumulation of wagons. The port infrastructure is in dire need of storage facilities. But we understand that the port of Izmail is a state-owned enterprise, now business cannot demand from the state to install new ship-loading equipment and build warehouses. Therefore, we have acquired a land plot in Izmail district and are starting to build warehouses," the company's CEO, Mykola Hapeyev said.
He clarified that the site is located 15 km from the port, its area allows for storage capacity of up to 20,000 tonnes. The project of the first stage is a warehouse with a floor storage system with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes is already at the stage of developing working documentation. In parallel, the company is obtaining urban planning conditions and restrictions and is working on formalizing all permits.
"The investment in the first stage is about $500,000, this is our own working capital. We expect that by mid-summer we will launch the first stage. This will create about 50 new jobs," the expert said.
According to him, the next stages of the complex will most likely be vertical storage systems. The start of work on them will depend on the speed of the implementation of the first stage and the effectiveness of the indicators.
Ascet Shipping specializes in providing logistics services for export shipments of grain and food cargo in seven ports of Ukraine: in Berdiansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Mariupol, Kherson, Dnipro and Zaporizhia. At the beginning of the war, the company moved production facilities to the west of Ukraine, established cooperation with elevators in the region and Europe. The company plans to send goods by rail and road to European ports.