Swiss Ambassador in Ukraine, Mr. Claude Wild visited Container Terminal Odessa

SC CTO is a country leader in container port handling and the biggest investor of Odessa port.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Swiss Confederation in Ukraine, Mr. Claude Wild visited marine terminal operated by Container Terminal Odessa, a company with German investments (CTO, a subsidiary of the German holding group Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA).

The visit took place on October, 19th. General Director of SC CTO, Mr. Anastas Kokkin, General Director of Ukrainian office of the Swiss shipping company, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Mr. Rachid Bouda and Vice-President for social and political relations of SC CTO and Hamburg Ambassador, Mrs. Svetlana Yarovaya met on the premises of the Quarantine mole of Odessa port.

The head of the diplomatic mission was shown the new high-tech container handling facilities and after that the parties discussed the role of Odessa port as an important link of the sea routes, including shipments to Europe and backwards. «We discussed how efficiently is it possible to organize the transportation of containers through CTO terminal in terms of time and cost», — Mr. Wild resumed. «There are several large Swiss companies that invest in Odessa region. Today we have the representatives of Mediterranean Shipping Company here …

«To be in Odessa means to me, as to the Ambassador, to be interested not only in the economy but in the strategy as well», — the Ambassador of the Swiss Confederation in Ukraine added . – «The port, same as Odessa city is the window to the world. I mean good conditions for the trade development between the East and the West, between the North and the South. I am here to appraise current state of business in the region and to try to forecast what will be here in 10 years. Together with our offces in Bern and in Kyiv we have to develop a clear strategy on how to cooperate in the future so that this infrastructure can be beneficial for both parties».

SC CTO is a Ukrainian leader in container port handling and the biggest investor of Odessa port. This year only the Quarantine mole terminal operator invested more than 20 million Euro in development of the handling facilities, expansion of the yard area and creation of the new software for the terminal customers, including one of the biggest clients, Mediterranean Shipping Company.

«We are grateful to Mr. Ambassador for his attention and support for the development of the infrastructure projects in Odessa port, where there is a synergy of efforts of the largest international investors, in this case the German HHLA and the Swiss MSC, which is the one of most important partners of Odessa Container Terminal.», – Mr. Kokkin commented the meeting. «Our terminal is as client-focused to maximum possible extent and ensures the provision of reliable container cargo handling services according to the highest standards in the Ukrainian market. Large German investments in the infrastructure development and the expansion of the Quarantine Mole terminal provide our clients with the opportunities to increase container traffic in the Ukrainian market. So, after the opening of the second container service in the Black Sea region, MSC demonstrates a stable growth of container cargo, which is handled by Container Terminal Odessa».

It should be recalled, that in summer, as part of the first state visit to Ukraine of the President of the Swiss Confederation, Mrs. Simonetta Sommaruga, a number of bilateral documents were signed on the implementation of technical and humanitarian cooperation projects between the two countries in the period from 2020 to 2023.