One of the leaders of Ukraine’s agrarian market, the largest agricultural company NIBULON has finished the successive stage of implementation of its national patriotic investment project to revive navigation along the Dnipro and the Southern Bug Rivers and also to develop infrastructure of Ukraine’s grain market.
On Friday at Santierul Naval Constanta shipyard (Constanta, Romania) there was held a solemn ceremony of “christening” of St.Mykolai floating crane, the largest and up-to-date floating transshipment crane in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Basins, constructed by NIBULON group order. Construction completion will allow the company to enter new level of grain transportation along the Dnipro River. The vessel will be delivered to Mykolayiv city this week.
Oleksiy Vadaturskyy reminded that Mykolayiv city was named in honor of St.Mykolai. A keel-laying was held on St.Mykolai Day. Six years ago a grandson of Oleksiy Vadaturskyy was born. The boy was named Mykola. And the vessel was called St.Mykolai.
Traditionally, Rayisa Vadaturska together with her grandson Mykola broke a bottle of champagne on the vessel’s side.
“I am glad and proud of my company. Our company does not speak much but acts and revives navigation along the Dnipro River. We went towards our dream with confidence and purposefully, and today we have practically realized our dream. The next stage of the program to revive navigation along the Dnipro River has got its logical completion today. We have built a network of elevators, tug and navigable fleet, and the up-to-date floating crane. We have created the whole carriage infrastructure along the Dnipro River”, stressed Oleksiy Vadaturskyy. He also added that at present NIBULON was able to reach planned volumes of grain carriage on the Dnipro River.
“And it means that the volumes of truck transportation will be reduced, and there will appear new environmentally friendly type of transport. It means that Ukraine’s roads will be destroyed less. This is our real care for Ukraine’s highways”, he added.
Oleksiy Vadaturskyy also noted that the newly built unique crane will allow NIBULON to transship up to 20 thousand tons of grain daily which is equal to the export transshipment terminal capacity in Mykolayiv city.
“It is an elevator on water taking into consideration its capacity. The floating crane is able to substitute a stationary sea terminal for shipment of grain crops. 65 world’s best suppliers participated in its construction. The crane is equipped with modern navigation devices, propulsion units. It is the best crane in the basins of the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, and the Sea of Azov. I consider it to be the best floating crane in Europe”, noted O. Vadaturskyy.
In his turn SNC Managing Director Radu Rusen stressed that the shipyard and its employees were proud of implementing such an important for NIBULON project.
“It was a successful deal between us and NIBULON. We started to work on this project a year ago. The process of construction took 9 months. Our workers spent above 250 thousand work hours working day and night”, mentioned Radu Rusen.
According him, he and SNC team were impressed by professionalism of NIBULON’s specialists and their experience in the shipbuilding field obtained during construction of NIBULON’s vessels.
“NIBULON’s team demonstrated the highest level of professionalism. They have good practical skills in a vessel construction. Having such a good operational experience with NIBULON we would be glad to cooperate with the company in future”, announced Radu Rusen.
Yevgen Ignatenko, a captain-instructor of the newly built vessel, was also satisfied with cooperation with the Romanian shipbuilders. According to him, all the remarks were removed in time without using written statements and instructions. And this vessel will take a deserved place in NIBULON’s fleet. “The given vessel is a leader of NIBULON’s fleet. It does not have any competitors not only in Ukraine but also in the territory of the whole Black Sea and Mediterranean Basins”, he added.
“We have created this unique crane. It was built under the leadership of NIBULON’s experts, young team of our shipping company. Besides, it was built under inspection of the Shipping Register of Ukraine. And we are proud that this vessel named St. Mykolai will plough rivers and seas under Ukraine’s flag”, stressed O. Vadaturskyy.
At that O.Vadaturskyy expressed his regret concerning impossibility to order the project to Mykolayiv or other Ukrainian shipyards. All Mykolayiv shipyards are not busy and they do not have technical and personnel opportunities to implement such projects. And NIBULON shipyard itself is under reconstruction but the company has new ambitious plans.
“As a citizen of Mykolayiv city and a patriot of Ukraine it is a pity to construct my fleet aboard. But our own shipyard is under reconstruction, that is why we have to build this floating crane at Romanian shipyard. Soon it will achieve the highest technological level. And not only Ukraine but also the whole world will find out that NIBULON is engaged in fleet reviving in Ukraine”, mentioned NIBULON’s General Director.
O.Vadaturskyy also stressed that the floating crane construction meant completion of another stage of implementation of NIBULON’s large-scale patriotic national project to revive the Dnipro and the Southern Bug Rivers as key waterways of Ukraine. The project is implemented despite bureaucratic obstacles and inactivity of separate authorities. Despite support of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and direct orders to grant NIBULON’s project the status of national, the appropriate decision was not made at the level of the officials.
“We are an independent company, we implement our investment project ourselves. We do no need public funds, we need moral support of the government. We are able to do things which are planned by our government but not implemented. All the officials say that they support, make decisions but actually nobody wants to make decisions, to put a signature… And I think that only Ukraine’s President and Prime Minister can influence on this situation, because their orders are not executed by the officials of ministries and departments. And we will show that the Ukrainian company can build fleet without asking for support and waiting for any benefits”, assured O.Vadaturskyy.
The next stages of the global project to revive navigation along Ukraine’s rivers will be widening of the Dnipro River riverbed and removal of rocks preventing from navigation along the main waterway of the country.
The design was developed by Mykolayiv design bureau “Torola Design Group” that has already developed designs of non-self-propelled vessels and tugs (NBL-90 and POSS-115) for NIBULON. The newly built crane can operate on the high sea with wave height of up to 1.5 m and wind force of up to 20 m/s. During the floating crane construction there were used almost 840 tons of A-class steel and it is equipped with equipment by the leading manufacturers, namely Volvo Penta (Sweden), Marine Interior (the USA), Schotel (the Federal Republic of Germany), Heinen& Hopman Engineering (Holland) and 60 other companies. The crane itself was delivered by Liebherr (Austria). The grab bucket capacity will comprise a minimum of 60 tons per one lifting. The crane will be quite productive in order to load Panamax vessels on roads.
NIBULON’s own fleet numbers 28 non-self-propelled vessels with total deadweight of 131.08 thousand tons; 4 constructed tugs of POSS-115 project and 3 purchased ones (with total capacity of 11 280 kW); a modern Watermaster Classic IV dredger made in Finland; St. Mykolai floating crane. Fleet construction is in process, the quantity of its units will increase with the lapse of time. At its own shipyard NIBULON plans to construct 12 non-self-propelled vessels with total deadweight of 48 thousand tons (NBL-91 project), 12 shallow draught pusher tugs with total deadweight of 360 tons and total capacity of 12 thousand h.p. (POSS-120 project), 35 self-propelled vessels of “Volgo-Don max” type with total deadweight of 175 thousand tons.
