Black Sea Container Terminals Handled 2 927 016 TEU In 2018

Black Sea Container Market Review 2018

• Black Sea region growth for 5 countries
• Top five Container Terminals of the region
• Lines’ market shares in the region

Black Sea container terminals of Ukraine, Romania, Russia, Georgia and Bulgaria handled 2 927 016 TEU in 2018, including empty containers, excluding transshipment.  

This review observes only full containers of the region – 2 188 153 TEU. Total growth achieved by these five countries in 2018 was 8,70%, compared to the same period last year.

In 2018 general increase in laden containers was 8,70%

Black Sea region turnover, 2018 and 2017, TEU, full

In 2018, there was a laden container turnover increase in all countries of the Black Sea region. The highest growth was achieved by Ukraine and Georgia – 18,99% and 14,64%. At the same time, Bulgaria, Russia and Romania have achieved 4,52%, 3,94% and 0,35% growth of laden container turnover respectively.   

Full containers turnover by countries, TEU

During this period, 56,63% of laden containers were imported, with 43,37% of the volume being exported. It is estimated that laden container share was 74,76% and empty container share was 25,24%.

Import stated 56,63% of laden container volume at the Black Sea

Export volumes from the aforementioned countries increased by 3,12% compared to 2017. Ukraine achieved significant growth of export volume – 14,89%. Romania suffered 9,85% decrease of laden export volume, while Georgia, Russia and Bulgaria achieved growth of 6,56%, 5,09% and 1,54 respectively. Import to the region increased by 13,40%, mainly because of Ukrainian, Georgian and Romanian import volume growth of 23,01%, 15,93% and 15,91%. Import volume of Bulgaria and Russia increased by 7,97% and 3,19% respectively. 

Ukraine and Georgia have achieved 23,01% and 15,93% growth of laden import volume

Thus the percentage of laden volume handled by each country in 2018 distributed as follows: Ukraine – 31,58%, Russia (Black Sea) – 25,80%, Romania – 22,02%, Georgia – 12,03%, Bulgaria – 8,57%.

The top-five container terminals of the region in 2018 changed their positions in total volumes handled: DPW (Constanta, Romania) and APMT Poti (Georgia) secured their top positions. CTO (Odessa, Ukraine) moved to the third position, while NUTEP (Novorossiysk, Russia) shifted down to the fourth place. At the same time, BKP (Odessa, Ukraine) moved to the fifth place for a first time in recent years, while NLE (Novorossiysk, Russia) moved to the sixth place. All of these terminals except DPW achieved volume growth in 2018 compared to 2017.

Black Sea Container Terminals shares by total turnover, 2018

As for the leading carriers of the region, MAERSK still was a leader; while COSCOCS overcame ARKAS and became third largest carrier of the region. For the first time in recent years, ZIM became TOP-5 carrier at the Black Sea. TOP-5 carriers of the region were MAERSK, MSC, COSCOCS, ARKAS and ZIM. In total, these carriers controlled 71,83% of this market.

MAERSK, MSC, COSCOCS, ARKAS and ZIM controlled 71,83% of the Black Sea market

In 2017 the total market share of Maersk and MSC was 44,45%, but in 2018 it has decreased by 1,23 p.p. to 43,22%. At the same time, the total share of CMA CGM and COSCOCS was 18,65% in 2017, while in 2018 it has increased by 0,38 p.p. and stated 19,03%. It is also worth to note that in 2018 against 2017 CMA CGM has decreased its share by 0,23 p.p., while COSCOCS has increased by 1,06 p.p. and it has allowed COSCOCS to become the third largest carrier in the Black Sea region. At the same time ZIM increased its share by 0,80 p.p., from 8,28% in 2017 to 9,09% in 2018, it has allowed ZIM to become TOP-5 carrier of the region. The united Japanese carrier ONE became 10th biggest carrier of the region in 2018, its share stated 1,42%, but it is worth to note that in fact the carrier became active since April 2018 and its operational period was 9 months only. The market share of ONE is expected to grow in 2019.