Our

history

From ancient times (it was mentioned starting from the Greeks in the 5th century BC) the Dnipro River has been the main and convenient trade route. We will briefly tell you how shipping was formed on it and what preceded the creation of Ukrrichflot, a corporation with more than a century of history.

In 1835 the first steamship company appeared on the Dnipro river. Two of its steamers towed barges with stone for the construction of the Kyiv Fortress and Chernihiv Highway (now Brovarske Highway).

In 1858 emerged the "Society of Steamship on the Dnipro river and its tributaries", and later the "Second Society of Steamship on the Dnipro river and its tributaries" with manager David Margolin. At the beginning of the 20th century, there already were 382 self-propelled and 2,226 non-self-propelled vessels in the Dnipro river Basin.

The Dnipro River Transport Department has been established. It is from this year that the official history of the Company begins.

Two steamship companies were established: the Upper Dnipro one, with its center in Kyiv and the Lower Dnipro one, with its center in Kherson. Over time, they merged into the Dnipro Steamship Company.

Thanks to the commissioning of the Dnipro hydroelectric power station, the dam and the lock, the Dnipro became navigable from its top to its mouth. Large ports grew on the banks of the river: Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and also the biggest on the Dnipro river, newly built and equipped the Zaporizhia river port.

During the World War II the economy of the Dnipro river Basin suffered huge losses, because almost the entire river fleet was flooded. However, active restoration work already in May 1945 allowed to launch the Dnipro and Dnipro-Dvinskiy Shipping Company (renamed the Upper Dnipro Shipping Company in 1947) and double the number of traffic on the Dnipro river compared to 1944.

In 1965, the Dnipro Shipping Company received the status of the Main Directorate of the River Fleet under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Thus, the geography and opportunities for transportation are expanding, for example, non-transshipment carriage of export-import cargoes, between the ports of Danube, Black sea and Mediterranean sea becomes possible.

During these years the principal construction of the Nikolaev river port, which history began in 1882, is also conducted.

In 1988, the main department of the river fleet was reorganized into the Industrial Association “Central Administration of River Fleet” of the Ministry of Transport of the USSR. And on December 29, 1989 a directive of the USSR Cabinet of Ministers for the establishment of the first intersectoral state association of river transport in the republic – the ISA “Ukrrichflot” - was issued.

In 1992, the Joint-stock Shipping company “Ukrrichflot” was established on the basis of the “Central Administration of River Fleet”. In 1995, started working on a newbuilding project of new “Desna” type dry-cargo ships with cargo capacity of 3500 tonnes.

Today UKRRICHFLOT continues to constantly evolve and change. In order to actively develop the agricultural direction, two port elevators in the Dnipro and Kherson and two covered grain warehouses in the Dnipro and Mykolayiv have been built and put in operation. The company optimizes the management system and implements modern IT solutions.