Nibulon plans to build additional 10 riverside ports on the Dnieper River and other rivers and it will drastically change the map of logistics map of Ukraine, told Alexey Vatadurskiy, the CEO of Nibulon during the opening ceremony of the reloading terminal in Golaya Pristan of Kherson region of Ukraine. The CEO of Nibulon and the head of EBRD office in Ukraine mr. Sevki Acuner signed the USD 90mln loan agreement during the grand opening ceremony. The raised funds will be channeled on the further development of water transportation, as well as shipbuilding of cargo ships. To note, Nibulon announced that it will float out 40 dumb vessels and tug boats.
Outstandingly, Nibulon possessed a UAH 7bn worth opportunity to invest in agriculture related projects in Ukraine, if to consider USD 74mln loan from the EIB and USD 100mln facility from the IFC altogether with the EBRD loan worth USD 90mln.
The CEO of Nibulon believes that the loan from the EBRD contributes in fact not only for the purposes of the project alone but for the whole water transportation industry of Ukraine too. At this, the facilities will have created 2 000 permanent working positions, along with about 10 000 workplaces in construction. The program encompasses also Kherson and Zaporizhia regions bordering with the so called regions of anti-terrorist operation. Soon, the company will launch a yet another elevator complex in Lugansk region, practically connecting the war torn region with the economy of Ukraine.
The CEO stressed that Nibulon is the only company that persistently works to take off trucks off the roads. At this, the company believes that ports must not be erected within residential communities but outside, so that not to bear negative impact on citizens. Such projects are widely supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, International Finance Corporation of the World Bank, told the CEO of Nibulon. The company enjoys support from local community councils too in order to make roads free of heavy trucks.
The launching of the new facility in Golaya Pristan with the projected capacity of 300 000tons for reloading of grain cargoes will help unclog the highways from 20 000 heavy trucks in the Kherson region. At this, the opened terminal has become the closest dispatching point on Dnieper River to reaching the exporting ports and the Black Sea taking up to 8 hours of sailing.
The EBRD director for Ukraine Sevki Acuner noted that Nibulon and the EBRD have been cooperating for many years. He praised the Nibulon CEO mr. Alexey Vadaturkiy for taking such a commitment under the EBRD facility.
It is a great success that the left bank of the Dnieper River attracted foreign funds. It took 100 working days to erect the facility, two and a half months for obtaining of the related permits. Prior to this, foreign delegations were prohibited from visiting Kherson region due to its closeness to the occupied Crimea. Now, after Alexey Vadaturskiy’s extraordinary efforts in convincing the world investors to work with the region, investors from worldwide started to visit Kherson region, said Andrey Gordeev, the head of Kherson region State Administration.
Nibulon is an example of successful domestic company that managed to become innovative, effective and technologically advanced performing to the best of world standards. It must become a classic example for modern Ukraine of how the country (state administration, business, and foreign investors) must act in order to increase added value for farmers and machine building enterprises and hence attract more investments, told Max Nefiodov the first deputy minister of economic development and trade in Ukraine.
