Will Constanza cope with the load if the Grain Corridor is closed?
Experts expect that this year the Danube countries will harvest a large crop of grain and oilseeds. Annually, Romania, Serbia and Hungary transported up to 24 million tons of agricultural products through Constanza port.
Last year, due to the drought, the harvest in these countries was low. Accordingly, transshipment volumes were insignificant. But already this summer, everything can change.
As for the Ukrainian grain flow, currently, a significant share of exports from the Danube ports bypasses Constanza. Agricultural products are loaded onto sea vessels that move through the mouth of Bystre. However, the seasonal drop in the water level in the Danube, which begins in July, can harm the exit of sea vessels from Bystre. As a result, grain cargoes will be redirected to the barge fleet, which will head to Constanza. Thus, two powerful cargo flows may meet in Constanza – from Ukraine and its neighbors.
In such a scenario, Constanza port infrastructure will be overloaded. Ukrainian Danube Shipping says that knowing about such a problem, they started working on the creation of a complex logistics chain for Ukrainian exports. It includes own transshipment, transportation by barge caravan along the Danube and loading onto a sea vessel in the port of Constanza on a vessel-to-vessel basis.