Although there were no increases in the container volumes in Ukraine during the first quarter of 2022, there were more requests from Ukrainian freight forwarders to Varna West Terminal in Bulgaria, according to the terminal manager Kostadin Dimitrov.
Dimitrov said, “As Constanta terminal overloaded, we began to receive requests from Ukrainian freight forwarders interested in moving cargo via Varna terminal more often.”
Varna West Terminal manager suggests that shipping line restrictions imposed on the container equipment entering Ukraine is the main bottleneck for import container traffic moving from Varna (and Constanta) to Ukraine.
While non-Ukrainian containerised cargo is continuing to move to the POD [place of delivery] in a container, Ukrainian cargo must be restuffed to a bonded truck for further delivery to Ukraine and this extra cargo handling operation is a time-consuming process that slows down overall container turnover and increases transportation costs, according to Dimitrov, who confirms that the Varna box terminal has sufficient capacity to handle part of Ukrainian traffic, however, warehouse space may become an issue if shipping lines leave the restrictions in place.
Dimitrov went on to explain, “We regularly receive requests [from Ukraine] for bonded storage services in Varna but as of today, such port warehouses are fully utilised and storage capacity is limited. Once shipping lines allow delivering containers directly to Ukraine, the warehouse space should not be an issue anymore. We, as a Terminal West operator in Varna continue our talks with shipping line representatives and promote the idea of direct container shipping to Ukraine, however, it is up to them [shipping lines] to decide.”
According to the results of the Q1 2022 Informall rating, the total container turnover of Bulgaria decreased by almost 7% compared to the first three months of 2021.
Shipping lines present in the Bulgarian container market did not demonstrate any significant changes which can be seen in the rating table below.
Despite the decrease in domestic laden container turnover in the first quarter of the year, Informall, an independent consulting and private equity firm, forecasts that Bulgaria is set to gain in its transshipment volume in the second quarter period as the Russian-Ukrainian war unfolds.
The top three liner operators, MSC, Maersk and Hapag-Llloyd which transported almost 70% of the total container turnover of the country in Q1, secured their positions from the previous year and further gained in total container volume transported via terminals of Bulgaria.
Daniil Melnychenko, data analyst at Informall BG, believes that Varna is “an appealing option for freight forwarders willing to move cargo seamlessly while the extra cost of travelling to Varna is compensated by cheaper cargo handling charges and affordable stevedore services.”
Furthermore, similarly to Romania, the government of Bulgaria joined the initiative that simplifies cross-border rules for trucks carrying Ukrainian import and export cargoes. The initiative allowed to speed up the transshipment of Ukrainian containers with essential products and humanitarian aid arriving in the port of Varna.
