The Black Sea container terminals of Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine handled 979,000 TEU for the first nine months of 2024, including empty containers and transhipment. This is an increase of 14 percent compared to the same period last year, and this jump reflects the revival of container traffic to and from Ukrainian ports. (This review considers only seaborne trade in cargo containers, as waterborne container transport in Ukraine accounts for about 25 percent of the total volume.)
In all these countries, cargo container traffic increased, and Ukraine achieved the highest growth (79%).
During this period, 53 percent of the processed full containers were imported, and 47 percent of the volume was exported. According to estimates, the share of loaded containers was 77 percent, and empty - 22 percent.
Import volumes to the above-mentioned countries increased by 19 percent compared to 2023. Ukraine demonstrated the largest increase in import volumes - 116 percent, which is a record growth rate.
Romania saw an increase of 23 percent, while Bulgaria saw a decrease of about three percent. Exports from these countries increased by almost 10 percent, mainly due to the growth of Ukrainian and Bulgarian exports by 64 percent and 14 percent (respectively). In Romania, a slight increase in the volume of loaded exports was observed.
Thus, the percentage of cargo handled by each country in the first nine months of 2024 was distributed as follows: Romania – 70 percent, Bulgaria – 22 percent, Ukraine – eight percent.
It is worth noting that the significant increase in volumes in Ukraine occurred thanks to the restoration of direct container feeder connections. At the beginning of 2024, a local forwarding company launched several vessels that transshipped containers from Constanta to the port of Chornomorsk. MSC and Maersk later deployed their own vessels from Tekirdag and Port Said respectively.
Historically, Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM have been the leading carriers in the Black Sea region, with a combined market share of more than 60 percent in recent years.
As for other Black Sea countries, cargo turnover in Novorossiysk increased by seven percent to 570,000. TEU About 40 percent of this volume was transported by MSC and Turkish carriers in the Black Sea, while the remaining 60 percent was transported by local carriers in Russia. Georgia's 9M 2023 total reached 518,000 TEU, while our estimate is about 15 percent lower than 9M 2024, when the total is expected to reach around 440,000 TEU.
The forecast for the growth of container traffic in the Black Sea region for 2024-2025 shows that the growth will be 5-7 percent and will exceed 3 million TEU in 2025. The main driver of this growth will be the further recovery and expansion of direct container traffic. to Ukrainian ports.