Convenient access to export logistics: UDP works with partners in Europe to create comprehensive logistics chains.

Traditionally, steamship services focused on river transport. The cargo owner handled transshipment, delivery to the port, and other components.

However, connecting the various elements of a logistics chain is not a simple process and involves certain risks. It requires experience, established contacts, and effective management.

For market participants operating with small cargo volumes and lacking the relevant expertise, it can sometimes be easier to opt for road transport. They find it to be more convenient and understandable.

We are bringing such clients back to the river. Instead of offering freight from the loading point to the unloading point, we start to offer a comprehensive service at a single tariff, which includes all components of the logistics chain.

“We have successful experience based on comprehensive service – we have delivered grain from trucks in a Ukrainian port to a large sea vessel in Constanța. This year, we are expanding the program to river ports in European countries: providing the client both freight and the transshipment of various types of cargoes (grain, containers, metal, etc.). We have reached agreements with ports in Hungary and are working with Austrian and Serbian colleagues to create a partner stevedoring network. We have our first clients. For now, it concerns European agricultural products, but consultations are underway regarding other types of products,” noted UDP Deputy General Director Vladyslav Bielakh.

According to Vladyslav, the beginning of the year was challenging for all Danube river shipping companies. However, transport volumes are gradually increasing – in March, the shipments of iron ore raw materials will grow to the highest mark of the last year, and large contracts for coal transportation to thermal power plants are becoming relevant again.

“The potential of the Danube cargo base is huge, but during the period of record-high rates in 2022-2023, the traditional group of clients was forced to switch to other types of transport, as they could not compete with the agrarians who were ready to pay any rate to export their harvest. Today, we are bringing our clients back from road transport and rail to the river. It’s not happening quickly. Everyone is thinking, ‘Will the Danube be flooded with a stream of grain from Ukraine again tomorrow?’ But the process of return has already begun,” summarizes Vladyslav Bielakh.