In 2018, along with the successful implementation of the company’s investment projects to develop its network of transshipment terminals and the revival of shipbuilding, NIBULON continued to develop navigation on Ukraine’s inland waterways. It redirects more cargo flows to water, thereby reducing traffic load on the roads.  According to last year’s result, the year 2018 was the most successful in the history of NIBULON’s shipping company.
Last year, NIBULON’s shipping company performed 660 cargo trips during navigation season, having transported more than 2.8 million tons by inland waterways. This index grew by 24 %, compared to previous year. In particular, NIBULON’s shipping company transported more than 1.9 million tons of cargoes along the Dnipro River and about 600 thousand tons along the Southern Buh River. The indices grew by 24 % and 37 % respectively, against the results of 2017. Services and transportation along the BDLC to the outer roads comprised 300 thousand tons.  
In December 2018, NIBULON’s shipping company transported a record volume of cargoes along the Dnipro River – almost 200 thousand tons.
In total, last year NIBULON’s shipping company handled 105 vessels, having loaded about 30 large-capacity vessels in the outer roads (without calling at ports).  
According to Oleksandr Taranovskyi, deputy director of NIBULON’s shipping company, such high results were achieved due to the formation of more efficient convoys of non-self-propelled vessels and tugs, the maximal use of cargo capacity of non-self-propelled vessels depending on available water levels on the rivers, expansion of the company’s fleet and improvement of shipbuilding projects under construction,  in particular the construction of vessels with larger cargo capacity and more high-capacity tugs. Two 100-m non-self-propelled B5000 project vessels with cargo capacity of 5,000 tons each and two multipurpose T3500 project tugs of 3500 hp (launched and put into operation in 2018) have significantly increased NIBULON’s shipping company. 
In addition, dredging operations on the Southern Buh River, the next stage of which was completed on April 4, 2018, enabled the company to load the non-self-propelled B2000 project vessels that were designed for operation on the Southern Buh River to their full load, thereby reducing the number of cargo trips and transportation costs. In turn, this frees the company’s tugs and non-self-propelled vessels to perform other cargo trips.
It should be noted that the year 2018 was marked for NIBULON’s shipping company by not only a significant increase in the volumes of transportation, but also an increase in the types of goods transported. NIBULON’s shipping company transports not only grain but also other cargoes, such as Kherson watermelons and melons, metal, building materials (sand, piles, etc.), and coal. In November 2018, NIBULON’s fleet mastered transportation of bulky cargo, namely an iron ore roasting kiln. The fleet transported it from Kherson Sea Port to Poltava Ore Mining and Processing Plant (Horishni Plavni, Poltava region).
NIBULON’s shipping company has transported about 13.2 million tons of cargoes over the period of its existence. Therefore, 550 thousand trucks have been removed from the country’s roads.
It should be noted that such record figures are achieved by our company even despite the excessive tax burden on water transport. In 2018, NIBULON paid more than UAH 98 million of taxes and dues for the operation of its water transport. In particular, NIBULON paid almost UAH 59 million of the excise tax on fuel used only by water transport, about UAH 10 million of rental payment for water use, UAH 6 million of port dues, UAH 2 million for lockage along the Dnipro Cascade, UAH 520 thousand for radio frequency monitoring and rental payment for the use of radio frequency resource, UAH 229 thousand for services of the Shipping Register of Ukraine, and UAH 20.5 million of the unified social tax. Thus, we pay UAH 35 of taxes and dues for every ton of cargo transported by water transport.
It is the excessive tax burden that makes river transport in Ukraine the most expensive, and therefore, uncompetitive mode of transport, as compared to rail and road transport. Therefore, only NIBULON builds modern vessels using Ukrainian metal at the Ukrainian shipbuilding yard; then the vessels fly the Ukrainian flag on the Ukrainian rivers. We constantly emphasize that the reduction of the excessive tax burden on water transport will not only successfully develop river cargo and passenger navigation in Ukraine, but also give impetus to the revival of national shipbuilding and other sectors of the economy. And this, in turn, will stimulate the emergence of such companies as NIBULON.