Luka Koper, the operator of Slovenia’s Port of Koper expects to end 2021 with 996 thousand TEUs handled, which represents a new historic record, the port operator said on Thursday (Dec. 30),
On Wednesday (Dec. 29), the Container terminal of the Port of Koper beat the previous container throughput record of 988,501 TEUs set in 2018.
“This is an important milestone, especially in the light of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on global logistics flows” said Boštjan Napast, President of the Management Board of the Port of Koper.
In 2021, Luka Koper made investments worth 45.6 million euro-part of which was also obtained from the European NAPA4CORE project- to increase the annual capacity of the terminal to one and a half million TEUs. To facilitate the handling of these volumes, the port operator ordered two new super post-panamax container cranes, (there are already two), which will arrive in mid-2022. Furthermore, Luka Koper is preparing the project documentation for the start of construction of the northern part of Pier 1, which will also be dedicated to containers.
“With such support and investments in capacity expansion, we will continue to maintain our status as the largest container terminal in the Adriatic”, added Napast.
The further growth in container throughput and the high level of productivity will depend to a large extent on the Pier I extension project. The operational quayside of the Container Terminal, which has been extended by almost 100 metres, was already put into operation in June.
The port operator continued with the construction of the hinterland storage areas where it said it will have a total of 25,000 square metres of additional space by the middle of next year. The work is being carried out in phases and half of the new space is already being used for container storage. This is the most important infrastructure project in the Port of Koper in the last ten years, both from a financial as well as strategic point of view.
Given that half of all containers handled in Koper already travel by rail, the future development of the Container Terminal and the Port of Koper depends to a large extent on the timely construction of an additional rail link to the hinterland. The so-called second track will be operational in 2026, but the country is also modernising other parts of the Slovenian rail network, Luka Koper noted.
Last month, the Port of Koper, together with other NAPA (North Adriatic Ports Association) ports, namely the ports of Venice and Chioggia, Trieste and Monfalcone, Ravenna and Rijeka signed a Joint Declaration on common policies and actions to promote environmental sustainability, digitalisation and connectivity for increasingly smart and green ports.
Situated along the coasts of the Adriatic Sea, the Port of Koper was founded in 1957 and is the only port in Slovenia. It is a multi-purpose port and joins principally, markets of Southeast, central Europe with the Mediterranean Sea and the Far East.
