ODESA, NOVEMBER, 7th, 2009, CONTEXT-PRICHERNOMORIE – The problems of maritime complex were discussed at the XIII sitting of the International Ship-owners’ Association of the Black Sea Basin held in the port of Yuzhny, Context-Prichernomorie correspondent reports.

The agency was informed about it today 7 November at the press-service of the port.

According to the press-service, 3-4 November the port of Yuzhny was holding the XIII sitting of the International Ship-owners’ Association of the Black Sea Basin (BINSA). The participants of the event were representatives of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Ukraine, shipping companies of Ukraine, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, as well as the port’s of Yuzhny authorities that joined the association in November 2008.

“The port of Yuzhny is a young member of the organization, though we do not have as large fleet as big shipping companies, however as a port we have our own port fleet thus we are also ship-owners”, the Port’s CEO Yuriy Kruk stated.

The BINSA members gather not rarer that once a year. The sittings of the Association discuss numerous problematic issues of the maritime complex, navigation in particular, shipbuilding, and provision of port services.

The Association members were discussing the necessity for systematic approach to providing stability of the security system of navigation, using intellectual transport systems. The ship-owners paid special attention to discussing the situation in Ukrainian ports concerning the tariff policy for the ship-owners and the issues of collaboration with various services.

Thus, Turkish ship-owners take the necessity to call in Ukrainian ports as a challenge, first of all because for the reason that a number of European ports have their port fees much lower then in Ukraine, and second of all for the reason that the bureaucratic barriers present an utter difficulty – customs, border, medical and sanitary formalities in the ports.

“Concerning the tariff policy we really have a lot of problems. We don’t have a flexible tariff system. At a certain moment the prices for the port’s services were increased, when the market was on all time high. However when the world economic crisis broke out the market fell down, but the prices remained the same”, Mr. Kruk said.

INFORMATION: The Commercial Sea Port of Yuzhny is situated in the North-West area of the Black Sea, on the ice-free Adzhalykskiy Liman and is a cargo operation turnover leader (20 million 698 thousand 600 tons in 2005). Main transportation directions: the Black Sea and the Mediterranean basins, the USA, Latin America, Middle East, South-Eastern Asia. All cargo, storage and auxiliary operations are carried out in the port. There work specialized complexes in the port for operation of mineral fertilizers, liquid chemicals, export overload berths for general and bulk cargoes.