Exchange of goods between Serbia and Romania much bigger - Constantza Port Day held in Belgrade

(Vladan Misic)

Traditional gathering occasioned by the Constantza Port Day was held on September 23 in Belgrade-based Holiday Inn hotel. Vladan Misic, a representative of that port in Serbia, expressed a satisfaction with the fact that, in addition to Serbian and Romanian companies, this year's meeting was also attended by the companies from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, and Austria.

The exchange of goods with Serbia has grown significantly when compared to the previous years. Total turnover of Serbian ports and the port of Constantza in the first seven months of 2010 reached 1,050,675 tons, while the turnover in the same period in 2009 amounted to 864,877 tons. People in the Romanian port expect the turnover with Serbia to grow in the second half of the year due to a more intensive export of cereals.

In addition to businessmen, the meeting was also attended by the highest management of Constantza Port, the representatives of the Romanian Ministry of Transport, and the Romanian Ambassador to Belgrade.

Ion Macovei, the Ambassador of Romania to Belgrade, invited the companies from Serbia to invest in Constantza Port and mentioned the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, suggested by Romania and Austria.

(Ion Macovei)

As he said, Serbia and Croatia are included in that project although they are not the members of the EU.

- I have an impression that we will cooperate well on this project and that the Danube Strategy will help us increase Serbian investments in Romania and Romanian investments in Serbia - said Macovei.

With the annual capacity of over 120 million tons, Constantza Port is a very important transit spot for various types of freight.

- Over the last eight months, Constantza Port has registered a 10.31% growth of the overall turnover, which has reached 30,680,118 tons after amounting to 27,813,627 tons in the same period in 2009 - said Eugen Bogatu, the Director of Port Infrastructure in Constantza.

He reminded that Constantza Port had promoted several development projects and added that the money had been provided for three projects, while the funds for other projects were being sought.

- The money has been provided for the construction of a bridge across the Danube-the Black Sea canal, the works on this project have already commenced, and the value of the contract is EUR 19,444,472. The second project is the completion of Constantza Port's northern breakwater 1,050 meters long, while the signing of the works supervision agreements is underway. The third project is related to the development of railway capacities in river-maritime zone with the aim of ensuring an optimal and united service for current and future port operators - said Bogatu.

(Eugen Bogatu and Sonja Djurisic from the Port of Pancevo)

Bogatu emphasized that Constantza was paying a special attention to stronger promotion of the port as a tourist destination for the cruising ships sailing to the Black Sea.

Milan Jazic from the City Administration of Novi Sad spoke about the use of the tourist potentials of the Danube. He explained that Novi Sad had not used the river in an adequate way. In order to use the potentials of the Danube in that city in the best possible way, the experiences from Romania have been applied.

- We have taken some concrete steps. Instead of only one pier for boats, we now have three, which is a big progress. This year 270 tourist ships used the services of our piers and that number has a tendency to grow even more. We will also apply the experience from Romania to the construction of marinas, which is our priority in the following period.

The biggest Serbian investor in Constantza Port is Silotrans, which has been formed by East Point and Schenker.

- The terminal of Silotrans is situated on the southern side of Constantza Port and it uses two moorings. It is very close to the canal that connects the Danube with the Black Sea, we own a warehouse with the storage capacity of 108,000 tons and the reloading capacity of 800 tons per hour. Silotrans can provide four simultaneous operations: unloading barges or boats, unloading railway cars, unloading trucks, loading ships. Our priority is the safety of our employees, facilities and goods stored in our facilities – said Djordje Krkljus, the Director General of Silotrans.

That company will soon start expanding its capacities. It is going to have a new facility built about 1 kilometer away from the existing one and it will have an additional storage capacity of 70,000 tons for soybean meal and a silo of 82,000 tons.

- In that way, the land on which this silo will be built will gain in value. Once the facilities are finished, Silotrans will have the annual capacity of more than 3 million tons. I would like to emphasize that we are working together with Schenker on some moles that are ideal for reloading the goods coming from Serbia and going to Serbia.

Agent Plus is already a traditional partner of the Constantza Port Day. Zoran Netkovic, CEO, mentioned the results achieved by that company in the previous period.

(Zoran Netkovic)

- This year we opened a branch office in Constantza, and then in Hamburg, Rijeka, Bar, Skopje. In addition, we have formed Ancora Plus company, which is engaged in the ship space booking on the Danube, that is, it provides river-maritime services. Last year we launched a specialized service for the LCL shipment from the Far East to Serbia. Direct LCL shipment is possible from the ports of Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hong Kong. We also opened a new storage space in Belgrade – said Netkovic and announced some new projects with Maersk Line, one of the world's largest shipping companies.

Agent Plus has a regular ship line to Constantza Port and it has also recently launched a new one on Budapest-Belgrade-Constantza route. This service, in association with Austrian shipping company Helogistics Holding, has been launched by maritime-river agency Jugoagent.

Other speakers at this event were the representatives of the companies Saybolt Pan Adriatika, Port of Pancevo, MK Commerce, Umex, Helogistics, and Jugoagent.