OREANDA-NEWS. August 20, 2010. The new grain cargo transshipment complex started operating on the territory of state-owned Odessa Commercial Sea Port (OCSP, Ukraine), the Port Authority press release said. The handling facility was commissioned a day before, at a ceremony attended by the Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications of Ukraine Oleg Bondar.

Since early 2009, the port has completed the facility project’s first-phase including 19 silos and the two so-called hemispheres of the total capacity of 82,500 tons of grain. The complex, currently operating in a test mode, has received 28,000 tons of wheat, barley and rapeseed for storage. The first grain shipment from the silo, is expected in late August, said Maxim Panyshev, the grain handling facility’s top manager.

Another six silos are projected to be launched in April 2011. That would boost the grain handling facility’s throughput to 2,5 million tons annually. The complex will be able to receive simultaneously up to 125,000 tons of grain cargoes.

The construction of the transshipment complex, designed by the Kolos Bureau, is carried out by Megapolis Llc, the Port Authority said.