Black Sea Market Review

This number represents a 5.5% increase compared with the amount of containers handled in the same period last year.

The laden turnover also increased in all the countries, apart from Georgia and Bulgaria, which suffered a laden volume drop of 24.32% and 0.03% respectively, the report stated.

In the same period, the report estimated that 51.2% of full containers handled were imports while the rest were exports. Of this, 71.89% were laden containers. It said: “Export volumes from the aforementioned countries increased by 12.35% compared to the first half of 2015.

“The highest export volume drop was shown by Georgia – 22.31%. In Russia and Ukraine, there was an increase of laden export. Moreover, Russia and Ukraine have achieved significant volume growth of 42.74% and 26.38% respectively.”

The report added that imports to the region decreased by 0.29%, “mainly because of Georgian import volume drop”. Further, laden import volumes increased in Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria by 23.54%, 16.92% and 4.1% respectively. In Russia, however, this dropped by 8%.

DP World, APMT Poti, NLE, HPC Ukraine and NUTEP were the top five performing container terminals in the region in the first half of 2016. Of these, only APM Terminals suffered a drop in volume, of 26.88%.

Maersk surpassed MSC to become the leading carrier in the region, followed by MSC, CMA CGM, ARKAS and ZIM. Together, these carriers control 74.57% of the market.