Key Performance Drivers of the Seaports in Ukraine

Ukraine is heavily integrated into international trade with significant export capacities (41% of GDP), out of which 57% of the volume is shipped by the sea. This importance contrasts with ports’ poor infrastructure quality and high port tariffs. This study decomposes the efficiency of ports, eventually aiming to curtail losses and improve cargo volumes. With SFA and order-α methodology, we estimated efficiency scores for Ukrainian ports for 2006- 2020 and defined Yuzhnyi, Mykolaiv, Odesa, and Chornomorsk as the best performing ports. The most important performance driver for ports is the infrastructure index. Similarly, tariff reduction by 10% promises efficiency score improvements by 0.01. Ports with higher port capacity also exhibit higher efficiency scores, while specialization does not affect their performance.