The shipping platform

Location : A Sea of Azov port, Mariupol is situated 14nm N of the entrance into the Taganrog Gulf, at the western end and at the mouth of the Kalmius River. General overview : All year round navigation is possible but during a 30-90 day period of ice, entry is with ice breaker assistance for ice strengthened vessels only. Ice usually begins to form at the end of Nov or the beginning of Dec and 3-4 weeks later the Gulf becomes completely frozen over. The increase of fast ice usually lasts up to Feb 1. As a rule the ice usually breaks up in the middle of March. It finally disappears at the end of March or, as an exception, in the first half of April. The port of Mariupol consists of the outer and inner roads and approach channels. The inner roads include the Grain Harbour, Coal Harbour and Western Harbour. According to their speciality, port berths can handle bulk (coal, ores, grain) general (steel products, equipment, etc), containerised, perishable and other cargoes. Depths at the port berths are up to 9.7m. At the port quays and nearby warehouses there are portal cranes of up to 40t capacity. There are also floating cranes with lifting capacity of up to 100t and other cargo handling equipment including vacuvators, coal (belt type) loaders and facilities for handling containers. There are covered and open storage areas. Traffic figures : Approx 2,500 vessels, 17,000,000t of cargo and 10,000TEU handled annually. Load line zone : Summer Zone for vessels over 100m in length and Winter Seasonal Area for vessels of 100m or less in length, Winter Dec 1 to Feb 28/29, Summer Mar 1 to Nov 30. Max size: LOA 240m, beam no restriction, airdraught 33.00 m, , draught 7.50m.