The construction of non-self-propelled open type vessels is a part of NIBULON’s investment project to revive navigation along the Dnipro and the Southern Buh Rivers as Ukrainian transport waterways, which covers navigation and shipbuilding development as well as construction of a network of transshipment terminals.
NIBULON officially held a keel-laying ceremony of the vessel’s first section (В1500 project) at the building berth of NIBULON shipbuilding and repair yard during the international TRANS EXPO ODESA MYKOLAIV 2019 Forum, on September 20, 2019. The company launched it in less than three months.
The shipyard’s crane operator, Liubov Fedoriak, was the vessel’s godmother who traditionally broke bottles of champagne against its bow. It will soon transport cargoes within Ukraine.
Kostiantyn Karpukhin, deputy director of production at the shipyard, told that the shipbuilders used about 700 tons of sheet and profile metalware, including pipes, 200 tons of sheet metalware and profile to produce the parts of the mechanical and fitter’s area, 4.5 km of cable, 30 tons of welding materials and more than 12,800 litres of paints and varnishes to build this vessel.
The B1500 project vessels are non-self-propelled open type vessels with a cargo capacity of 1,500 tons and a cargo deck area of 860 square meters which are intended to transport containers, general and bulk cargoes, including sand, gravel, fertilizers, pallet cargoes, and timber. The vessel’s dimensions are as follows: length – 75 m, breadth – 17 m, and depth – 3.5 m.
“The B1500 project vessels are designed to carry out commercial trips to transport general and bulk cargoes and also to deliver materials to NIBULON’s infrastructure facilities which are constructed or reconstructed”, says Oleksandr Taranovskyi, deputy director of economic affairs at NIBULON’s shipping company.  
The company plans to increase its fleet up to 100 units for transportation up to 6 million tons annually; the launching of the В1500 project vessel is the next step to achieve this. The non-self-propelled open type vessels with a capacity of 1,500 tons will allow the company to increase NIBULON’s fleet efficiency and to use other NIBULON’s non-self-propelled vessels more efficiently. The company’s cargo fleet will have an opportunity to deliver more grain batches from the transshipment terminals located along the Dnipro and the Southern Buh as well as the Mykolaiv transshipment terminal to the outer roads, thereby increasing the volumes of river transportation and shipment.  
At present, NIBULON’s shipbuilders are actively constructing five orders of the current production program. The company also plans to build non-self-propelled vessels (NBL-91, B10000 projects),  T1600 project docking tugs, an oil-carrying self-propelled vessel, and a patrol boat.    
We would remind you that every year NIBULON expands the nomenclature of cargoes transported by river. In addition to grain, the shipping company also transports other cargoes, such as Kherson watermelons and melons, metal, metalware, building materials (sand, piles, etc.), coal. In November 2018/19 MY, the company’s fleet mastered the transportation of bulky cargoes, namely an iron ore roasting kiln.