Anka Feldhusen, the head of the German diplomatic mission visited Container Terminal Odessa in the Odessa port

October 25, 2021; Podrobnosti UA

The German Embassy assists Subsidiary Company “CTO”, the largest German investor in the Ukraine's port industry, in dealing with fundamental problems, in particular access to the transport infrastructure. This was stated by Anka Feldhusen, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany to Ukraine, during her visit to the port of Odessa 22nd of October.

The honorable guest visited the new operations facilities of the container terminal at the Quarantine mole, which is operated by HHLA Container Terminal Odessa, a subsidiary of the leading German logistics holding HHLA (Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG), the port of Hamburg. At the berth #2K Oleksandr Holodnytskyi, the Head of the Administration of Seaports of Ukraine (ASPU), Maksym Lapay, the Head of the Odessa Port Administration, and representatives of HHLA CTO top management: Philip Sweens, President of the Company, Anastas Kokkin, General Director, and Svitlana Iarova, Vice President for Public Relations spoke with the head of the German Embassy.

Anka Feldhusen inquired about the current status of the investment project implementation and the prospects for the construction resumption of the one of its main components, the protective breakwater.

Anka FELDHUSEN: More than a thousand German companies are working now in Ukraine, united in the German-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. And we, as an Embassy, are interested both in the stable work of these companies and in attracting new ones, while this is impossible without improving the investment climate. Therefore, we work closely with the Ukrainian Government on such fundamental issues as judicial reform, improvement of the tax system; we are trying to assist in bringing the conditions of business development in the Ukraine closer to European standards.

The year 2021 became decisive in the promotion of the revised construction design of the new Quarantine mole terminal, which also provides for the construction of a protective breakwater.

Oleksandr HOLODNITSKYI: In one of her interviews, Mme. Ambassador said that ‘successful Ukraine is first and foremost a successful economy.’ The administration of the seaports together with its partners and stakeholders illustrates this conclusion with specific actions. The breakwater construction design passed the state construction expertize under the criteria of estimated cost, strength and safety of the hydraulic structure. A positive result was obtained. From day to day we expect that the Minister of Infrastructure signs the design approval. Today the bids were opened and the winner of the tender for construction works will shortly be determined. So, everything is on schedule and December 2021 on our joint road map with HHLA CTO is the start of construction works.

The German investor, in turn, equips new operations facilities with handling and transport equipment and builds new storage yards.

Philip Sweens: The new storage yard, which we have recently completed, has significantly expanded the territory of the terminal and increased our capacity to attract cargo flows and create new services for our customers. Now we plan further investments not only in the development of the terminal, but also in the railway transport infrastructure, which will connect the seaport with the main industrial regions of Ukraine ... Visit of Mme. Ambassador is very important for us both in terms of terminal development and in context of the development of economic relations between Germany and Ukraine…

The visit of Anka Feldhusen, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany to Ukraine, to the port of Odessa took place in a constructive business atmosphere. The parties discussed specific measures that will allow generally to successfully finalize the implementation of one of the largest public-private partnership projects in the Ukrainian maritime sector with the participation of a powerful foreign investor.

For information: : Since July 2001, HHLA CTO has been operating container terminal at the Quarantine mole in the Odessa port and being a permanent leader of the Ukrainian container market. For 20 years, the German company has invested more than 170 million euros in the development of production facilities of Odessa port. In total for 20 years of work more than 6,2 million containers (TEU) have been handled and total amount of taxes and charges paid to the budgets of all levels is more than 2,8 billion hryvnias.