Ukraine has a unique transport potential around 1 thousand kilometers long – the river Dnieper, which crosses 8 regions and has 10 ports.
In 2015 volume of Dnieper transportation totaled 5 million tons, or 0.5% of the total cargo transportation in the country. Most of the cargo is transported by automobiles (74%), the rest – by railroad, pipelines and aviation not taken into account. At the same time in EU rivers account for some 7% in transportation, with 12% in Germany and 16% in Bulgaria.
“If we take the Dnieper, transportation could reach 70 million tons, that’s a huge potential. River transportation is the most environmentally-friendly means of transport, and it is also the most competitive in respect of the railroad”, said Zaporizhstal sales director Vladimir Kolomiets.
He has also criticized the lack of government attention to the Dnieper as the transport route in view of multi-billion investments into road and railroad development, as well as the seaports support. Still he hopes the situation will change following the decree on the inner water transportation.
“The Dnieper infrastructure has been operating for 50 years. If we don’t pay attention to it, if we don’t invest into it, it will soon disappear”, he said and called on the government to develop river transportation. (Ukrainian metal)