TransInvestService
TransInvestService (TIS) is Ukraine's biggest private terminal operator and stevedore. In 2015, the company's cargo turnover reached 26.6 million tons. TIS operates its own cargo terminals in Small Adzhalyk Estuary, which is in the Yuzhny Port water area 22 km north-east of Odessa. TIS Group owns five modern terminals: TIS Grain, TIS Mineral Fertilizers, TIS Ore, TIS Coal and TIS Container Terminal.
TransInvestService owns and manages all service infrastructure facilities, including an in-house railway station.
TIS Group is the biggest taxpayer in Odessa Oblast: the company paid over UAH 1 billion in taxes in 2016. It employs about 4,000 people and continues to develop rapidly. Total investment in assets exceeds $550 million.
TIS was the first in the port sector to develop and test a public-private partnership arrangement for areas that had no regulations or relevant precedents. Between 2006 and 2010, the company invested $40 million in bottom dredging near its berths. This investment has generated over $210 million in national budget revenues from port charges over the past five years. A law regulating the status of private investors in ports was adopted in 2012 only, and the Ministry of Infrastructure issued an order, which elaborated regulations to compensate for the money channeled by private investors into improvement works and bottom dredging, in 2015 only.
Another project in which TIS tested the public-private partnership for the first time was the construction of a 5 km railway line near Yuzhny Port. The initiative boosted the section capacity to handle up to 52 pairs of trains daily and increased the cargo traffic by 10 million tons a year. As the government had a budget deficit to implement such projects, the company and its partners invested their own money to build the line and transferred it into the government ownership.
Company history
Alexey Stavintser and Oleg Kutateladze founded the company on an abandoned construction site of Liman state-owned company in 1994. The owners bought out the government's stake in the course of the company's development.
In 1994, they invested into abandoned facilities for rock phosphate imports at berth No.17. The raw materials were meant for a chemical plant under construction in Berezovka, Odessa Oblast. The construction which started in 1987 was never finished. However, an inter-governmental expert commission stopped the project. Involving environmental activists of Odessa region, the commission was set up by USSR Communist Party General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in response to protests of Novye Bilyary residents. The project was mothballed to be further converted to handle other bulk cargoes. Between 1987 and 1994, the facilities were neglected and handled cargoes very rarely because of the overall economic downturn and their remoteness from Yuzhny Port.
When Alexey Stavintser and Oleg Kutateladze bought the stake, they started converting the facilities from imports into exports. Later they began offering fertilizer transshipment services. This was the start of the TIS Group development. Since September 1994, the company invested heavily to build six in-house berths with a total length of over 1,300 m and depth of 15 m, dredge 50 ha of the estuary bottom by 6.5 million cu m and excavate over 7 million cu m of onshore soil.
Berths and Terminals
Berth 15 — TIS has built it as an auxiliary facility of the grain terminal for small vessels.
Berth 16 — TIS Grain is the Black Sea's biggest grain terminal with the annual capacity of 5.5-6 million tons. Completed in 1999, the facility is now 250 m long and 14 m deep. The storage capacity is 370,000 tons.
Berth 17 — TIS Mineral Fertilizers is Ukraine's second biggest terminal for fertilizer exports after Odessa Port Plant. It is 283 long and 14 m deep. The terminal's annual capacity is 3.5 million tons.
Berth 18 — TIS Ore terminal is a joint venture of TIS and Ferrexpo (Poltava GOK) to transship iron ore and pellets. Built in 2004, the facility has the annual capacity of five to six million tons. It is 250 long and 15 m deep.
Berths 19 and 20 — TIS Coal is the CIS biggest coal and ore terminal with the annual capacity of 12 million tons. Built in 2008, the berths are 500 long and 15 m deep. The storage capacity is 1 million cubic meters. In April 2012, the terminal accommodated Maxi Brazil, a 259,000 DWT bulker and the biggest vessel that ever docked in Ukraine.
Berths 21 and 22 — TIS Container Terminal is the Black Sea's newest terminal built in 2009. It is 480 m long and 15 m deep. The Phase 1 capacity is 400,000 TEU, while the maximum capacity is up to 2M TEU. Since November 2011, the facility has been serving ECUMED, a weekly liner service of Maersk Line.
Infrastructure
TransInvestService owns and manages all service infrastructure facilities in the terminals, including an in-house railway station.
In 2016, TIS handled over 26,000 railway cars.
Since 2012, TIS Container Terminal has been operating Vizirka site for motor vehicle arrivals. This helps streamline and simplify all cargo processing and manifesting procedures for cargo owners. Vizirka operates a one-stop office with a customs unit, information desk and offices of other regulatory bodies.
Corporate Social Responsibility
TIS Group is the region's biggest taxpayer. It continues to develop and create jobs and is a key employer for residents of Limansky District (former Kominternovo District). Many Odessa residents work at TIS as well.
TransInvestService is a founder and partner of Alexey Stavintser Foundation. The Foundation supports Odessa schools and many local initiatives. In 2011, the charity opened a children's arts and crafts center in Vizirka village.
Since 2014, TIS has been regularly making donations to support internally displaced persons, servicemen and their families, as well as Odessa Military Hospital. The company organizes special events and celebrations for internally displaced children from the eastern Ukraine.
TIS has invested to build a modern secondary school and renovated a kindergarten in Vizirka village, which is home to the terminals.
Every year the company organizes special events for Limansky District schools and hosts school excursions. On its foundation day on 3 September, TIS organizes a festival for employees' children.
Industrial Prizes, Awards and Records
1. TransInvestService has been a frequent winner of different ratings and awards, including the National Maritime Rating of Ukraine where it topped the following nominations:
- Achievement of the Year — 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
- Golden Berth — 2007, 2008, 2009
- Absolute Growth — 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013
- Growth Rate — 2008, 2009
- Absolute Record — 2010
- Golden Ton — 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014
- Freight Forwarder of the Year — 2011
2. Alexey Stavintser (1942—2011), a founder of the company, was twice awarded the Person of the Year Prize in the transport sector, in 2008 and 2009. TIS CEO Andrey Stavintser was recognized the Person of the Year in Water Transport in 2014.
3. In 2008, TransInvestService was called the best employer of the year.
4. In 2011, TIS Coal hit an absolute record in terms of the cargo loading rate in Ukrainian ports — 70,701 tons a day (coal loading, Katsuragi-Maru)
5. In 2011, TIS Container Terminal cracked an absolute record in bulk cargo unloading in Ukrainian ports — 41,150 tons a day (coal unloading, Navios Prosperity bulk carrier)
6. In 2015, TIS Group ranked as follows among other Black Sea ports:
- 1st place by dry cargo transshipment among all Ukrainian public and private ports
- 1st place by transshipment of all cargoes among all Ukrainian public and private ports
- 1st place by railway car handling
- 3rd place by transshipment of all cargoes in the Black Sea area (10th in the previous year)
7. In August 2016, TIS Coal loaded 103,000 tons of iron ore products a day onto Yue Shan capesize bulker. The loading rate was 100,000 tons/day, thrice as much as the average loading rate in Yuzhny Port. In total, TransInvestService loaded 120,000 tons onto the vessel. Experts believe investments into terminal modernization helped achieve the high performance.
Legal actions
In 1994, the company was set to cooperate with Norsk Hydro. However, the cooperation failed, as the Norwegian party defaulted on its commitments. Nonetheless, Norsk Hydro initiated lengthy judicial proceedings that ended in the Stockholm Court in 2008. The court ruled that Norsk Hydro's claims were legally baseless.
In summer and spring 2009, TIS was involved into a public conflict with the management of the neighboring Yuzhny Port. The management had accused TIS of raider attacks and intentions to drive Yuzhny Port to bankruptcy. TransInvestService rebutted the allegations, stating that the port's management acted deliberately to derail TIS's investment plans. The conflict resulted in a two weeks downtime in outer roads for Scan Oceanic, a British vessel that had a coal loader on board, and put Zhen Hua 11 berthing at threat. The latter brought equipment for the container terminal. The conflict stopped to be public in October 2009 after berths 21 and 22 were introduced to the Port Mandatory Regulations and the Yuzhny Port manager was dismissed.