Global container giant Mærsk shows interest in port concession in Ukraine

The Danish transport and logistics group A.P. Møller – Mærsk is interested in the concession of the container terminal in the port of Chornomorsk, the press service of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority announced on Tuesday.

USPA reported that the Portfolio Director Global Project Implementation of the port operator APM Terminals, Pieter Bas Bredius, and the CEO of Maersk Ukraine Ltd. Roman Koloianov visited Chornomorsk.

They discussed the prospects of expanding the company's activities on the Ukrainian market, in particular, the possibility of participating in the concession of the container terminal in Chornomorsk.

"Representatives of the A.P. Møller – Mærsk company have confirmed their significant interest in the concession of the container terminal," USPA reported.

Mærsk Container Lines suspended all operations to Ukrainian ports after the start of full-scale Russian aggression, but already in March 2023 the company resumed direct booking of cargo to Ukraine.

In 2020, for the first time, Ukraine began to give seaports a concession – these were the Mykolaiv Port of Olbia and the Kherson Sea Trade Port. Currently, they are not operating because of the war.

In the same year, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine announced that it wanted to sell three ports (Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Skadovsk, Ust-Dunaysk) and give a concession to six more (Chornomorsk, Berdyansk, Odesa, Izmail, Mariupol, Reni).

In January 2023, despite the war, Ukraine privatized the port of Ust-Dunaysk for the first time.

On May 13, it became known that Ukraine is preparing three terminals in the port of Chornomorsk for concession: the first, container, and the fifth.