The Lithuanian maritime cluster, which unites the country's maritime business and scientific community, offers to consider the option of delivering Ukrainian grain to the port of Klaipėda via the Nieman River, the Elevatorist reports.
After the withdrawal of the Russian Federation from the agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, the new gateway for this cargo can be the port of Klaipėda. When analyzing various options for how grain can get to the Lithuanian port city, it is proposed to evaluate the possibilities of the internal water corridor, in particular the Niman River.
The analysis of such possibilities has already been carried out, and efforts are being made to revive cargo river transportation on the country's largest river.
The first barge in Lithuania after the restoration of independence, which delivered cargo from the Klaipeda seaport, docked at the port of Marveli in Kaunas in 2019, and since then a number of successful logistics projects have been implemented. The shipping channel is constantly being modernized.
"When transporting Ukrainian grain by rail and reloading it in Kaunas, it would be necessary to change the track or transfer the container from one train to another once, instead of twice – this would significantly affect cost savings. It would be possible to improve Linas Agro's grain storage and transshipment capacity, which are already operating at the Nimanu berths in Kaunas and Jurbarkas. Also, European experience shows that freight transportation by inland waterways can be 30-40% cheaper than by land," – said Laimonas Rimkus, head of the Klaipeda Sea Freight Company Bega.
Thanks to an electric barge pusher project developed in Lithuania, the green corridor of inland waterways will ensure zero-emission cargo transportation. According to Laimonas Rimkus, the construction of the European railway line to Klaipeda is a strategic task.
Having already included its inland waterways in the transport chain, Lithuania could receive not only Ukrainian grain in the Klaipeda port, but also other cargoes, which are fused by Nieman.
“Opening the possibility to transship cargoes from railway wagons and containers in Kaunas and continuing the transportation of cargoes by river to Klaipeda will increase the attractiveness of our port in the market of the south-east of Poland. Thanks to the developed waterway, which brings Klaipeda's sea freight transport closer to this region of the neighboring country by about 100 kilometers, we would become an alternative to the ports of Gdańsk and Gdynia," – said Laimonas Rimkus
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