Transport of goods on the Danube constantly increasing - 10th Constanta Port Day held in Serbia

The event “Constanta Port Day” has reached its tenth edition in Serbia, being hosted by Holiday Inn Hotel in Belgrade on September 22, 2016, and awaited with interest both by the Serbian partners and the port community in Constanta. The organizer, Compania Nationala “Administratia Porturilor Maritime” SA Constanta, has also celebrated 120 years of existence of Constanta Port.

Within the event, over 200 participants had the chance to start direct business contacts with partners in the same area of interest, identifying new opportunities, trying to find solutions for situations that concern them regarding the development of their business.

Together with the management of CN APM SA, Her Excellency, the Ambassador of Romania in Belgrade, Oana Cristina Popa, representatives of the Serbian Ministry of Transport, of Port Governance Agency, delegates from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria and important port operating companies from the port of Constanta have participated in the event.

The Ambassador of Romania in Belgrade, Oana Cristina Popa, has declared at Constanta Port Day in Belgrade: “First of all, I think the port of Constanta is a successful story from which both countries could benefit and the Embassy of Romania in Belgrade will include presentation materials of Constanta Port at all the events promoting Romania which will be attended. This business cooperation supported by the port of Constanta is very important for the development of bilateral economic relations and regional stability in the area, for the investment environment in both countries.” Her Excellency, the Ambassador of Romania in Belgrade, Oana Cristina Popa, has added that the business environment should get involved along with the authorities in the activity of promoting the port of Constanta, which has a great development potential. On the other hand, we have to use the European Danube Strategy and the Pan-European Corridor, so that we capitalize the strengths of Constanta Port.

The involvement of Administratia Porturilor Maritime Constanta in bringing to the talks the Serbian and Romanian businessmen has contributed to the great increase of the freight traffic between the two countries in the last years, has stated Sasa Jovanovic, port expert and project manager for IC Consulenten, considering that it is a major opportunity provided year by year for all the transport and logistics companies, the best occasion of meeting between the Romanian and Serbian business environment.

Marian Tanase, Deputy General Manager of CN APM SA Constanta, has declared: “We consider that the Serbian economic agents are important partners for the future development of Constanta Port, we wish this event would be really helpful for our partners in the region in order to develop and renew their business, using the advantages of Constanta Port, contributing to the development of bilateral Romanian-Serbian relations in the field of maritime and intermodal transport. We consider the own need of development of Constanta Port has to be better correlated through a more efficient and better integrated interaction with the interests of economic development of the other members of the port community, especially operating companies.”

Alexandru Madalin Craciun, Commercial Director of CN APM SA Constanta, has underlined: “Through this promotional event, we want to maintain and develop the relationships in order to increase the freight traffic in the region, but also to identify new zones of interest to attract new flows of goods. We plan to strengthen the partnerships established so far and we encourage the opening of new shipping lines with calls in the Romanian ports, respectively starting multimodal connections with other ports too.”

The companies Chimpex, Comvex, TTS, Umex, interested in the B2B meetings agreed with the partners in this region, have been represented in Belgrade. The event is supported by the partner ports on the Danube, Pancevo, Novi Sad, Belgrade, Vukovar (Croatia) and Baja (Hungary). INTERTEK, DTL – the largest private shipowner in Serbia, JRB – the largest and most important Serbian shipowner, with an existence of over 150 years, TRANSAGENT – Croatian company dealing with chartering, especially for rail transport, but lately they have also handled the river transport on the Danube, ELIXIR Group – the largest producer of complex fertilizers in Serbia, importer of raw materials, are just some of the companies that have joined the discussions with the representatives of Administratia Porturilor Maritime Constanta and freight operating companies in the port of Constanta. ELIXIR GROUP, PANCEVO PORT, DELTA AGRAR, CHANTEN, MK COMMERCE, PROMIST, VICTORIA GROUP, AGROGLOB, CFND, CARGILL, GLENCORE, LAFARGE SERBIA, CHS have also participated in B2B meetings with the Romanian port operators.

Since the beginning of the year up to August 31, the freight traffic between the port of Constanta and Serbia was of 3.64 million tonnes, of which 2.14 million tonnes the river traffic and 1.5 million tonnes the maritime traffic.

In the total traffic, the grains are the most important ones, with more than 2 million tonnes, followed by fertilizers with more than 1.03 million tonnes, iron ores and scrap 0.19 million tonnes.

The grains from Serbia are exported, with transit through the port of Constanta, to the South Korea, Spain, Iran, Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Portugal, Netherlands, Tunisia, Italy, Libya and Serbian metal products arrive in Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia, Spain. Serbia also imports, with transit through the port of Constanta, solid mineral fuels, fertilizers, iron ores and scrap, non-ferrous ores and scrap, oil products, raw or processed minerals, equipment, machines from countries like: Egypt, Ukraine, Russia, China, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Mozambique, Algeria, Denmark.

Both the representatives of the port community in Constanta and the Serbian partners believe that it is absolutely necessary to focus all the efforts for the maintenance of the fairway, by involving all the authorities that may contribute to it.

The steady improvement of the cooperation relations between the port of Constanta and the Serbian ports during the last ten years, strengthened by declaring the port of Constanta as the main transit seaport for Serbia and confirmed by the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the port of Pancevo, represents a proper context for further development of transport relations and exchange of goods in the area.

The port of Constanta has a major contribution to the continuous improvement of the commercial relations between Romania and Serbia; the role of Constanta Port as Black Sea gateway has been strengthened by the opening of the representative office of CN APM SA in Serbia, in 2007.

The event is part of the strategy of promoting the facilities and services offered by the port of Constanta, the projects for its development, given the advantageous connection with the Danube, the Pan-European Transport Corridor VII.

Thus, Compania Nationala “Administratia Porturilor Maritime” SA Constanta succeeds in a more effective interaction with the port community members, especially the operating companies, so that as many as possible of the development objectives are attained for Constanta Port.

Luka Konstanca Rumunija

Port of Constanta

Constanta Port

Vladan Misic

Embassy of Romania in Serbia

Oana Cristina Popa

Alexandru Madalin Craciun

Sasa Jovanovic

IC Consulenten

Marian Tanase

intemodal transport

Chimpex

Comvex

TTS

Umex

Pancevo Port

Belgrade Port

Novi Sad Port

Intertek

DTL

JRB

Transagent

Elixir Group

Danube

transport of goods on the Danube

Corridor 7