KIEV, UKRAINE — Construction of NIBULON’s transshipment terminal in the Bilenke, Zaporizhzhya region of Ukraine is progressing, the company said on Nov. 19.

The company also announced that BNP PARIBAS SA has given it a $40 million line of credit, with $15 million for financing of silos and ports in Ukraine.

Currently, the Dnipro River is home to ruined grain storage and thickets. The first contours of the future complex to receive, store and transship grain is starting to take shape, NIBULON said.

In the initial stage of construction, a berth will be built along the Dnipro River in the town of Nova Odesa. The berth will have a length of 105.8 meters and a breadth of 17 meters, with a three-way line for movement of loading machinery.

“Because of complicated surface relief, it is necessary to perform considerable volumes of earthwork,” said Oleksandr Lytvynov, a NIBULON engineer. “The territory is rough, has hills of different heights and a high bank. Besides, this costal territory is covered with trees, bushes, weeds. It is required to lower natural surface relief at the level of 6 meters in order to ram in metal grooves and to perform all concrete and ferroconcrete works.”

The future complex will have the capacity to store 55,000 tonnes of grain with an annual capacity of 450,000 tonnes and drying capacity of 4,000 tonnes per day.

Construction of the transshipment terminal and administrative and laboratory building will be constructed next, said Sergiy Besedin, deputy general director of construction.

“At the same time dismantling works are being performed. Twenty years ago there was grain storage – long storages with firm walls. This must be dismantled. All old buildings will be dismounted,” Besedin said.

Besedin said there is practically no entry road to the future terminal. The former enterprise stopped its existence 20 years ago; since then the road has turned into a pit. Consequently, there is a large amount of work to be done in this direction.

Mykolayiv construction organization Gidrotechnologiya Ltd. is working at the construction site. Its specialists have worked with NIBULON before.