By the end of the year, nearly 12 million tonnes of goods will be transported through Serbia’s waterways, which is one million tonnes more than expected, the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure informed Tanjug.
The ministry also announces that the plan for the development of the port, which will invest half a billion euros in order to reach a volume of transport of 20 million tonnes by 2025, will start with the construction of the port in Smederevo as early as March 2020. Assistant Minister for Water Transport, Veljko Kovacevic, estimated that one million tonnes more on Serbian rivers is just a continuation of many years of good trends in water transport.
“Trends are very good, water traffic is directly dependent on the industry, as it grows and develops, and water transport is increasingly involved in the volume of transport”, Kovacevic said, adding that five million tonnes more were transported this year by the Danube, Sava and Tisza comparing to five years ago. According to Serbian rivers, the most commonly transported products are those that require mass transportation of goods, as well as raw materials suitable for such transportation.
“We think that there is still a lot of room for transport to be improved in order to reach the strategic goal of having 20 million tonnes of goods transported by 2025 – and that is the amount that the former Yugoslavia had”, he says, adding that it is realistic because large users of RTB Bor, IHP Prahovo and others are developing. The critical zone for the transport of goods by river is port infrastructure because goods that gravitate to the river cannot be transhipped effectively, he said, adding that large investments have been made since 2020, and many of them have started this year as well.
“Our ports are not sufficiently built or what we have is in very poor condition, as well as port machinery. We have foreseen the total investments which now reach almost half a billion euros, which means the construction of a completely new port in Belgrade, expansion of the Bogojevo Port’s capacity because of agricultural products, Port of Sremska Mitrovica which should enable more efficient export of grain, but also to provide storage capacities for oil, and we urgently need to expand Prahovo port, as capacities of RTB Bor and IHP Prahovo are growing”, says Kovacevic.
In March 2020, construction of the port of Smederevo will start due to the needs of HBIS and the ironworks, and the economy in the hinterland of Smederevo has an increasing need for that port.
“The tenders for the selection of contractors are underway and we will start construction works already in March”, Kovacevic said, specifying that the agreed deadline will be two years.
Designs for the ports of Bogojevo, Sremska Mitrovica and Prahovo will be completed in parallel, and he expects that work on the construction of those ports could begin in 2021.
“The port of Belgrade requires a longer process, because the preparation of project technical documentation is a little more complex and we expect the first works for it at the end of 2021 and maybe early 2022”, says Kovacevic. Ores, grain, gravel and sand, oil derivatives, which are considered logical by Kovacevic, are still mostly transported in the Serbian rivers.
“We want to change that, to modernize ports, to create added value for our economy because other types of products want to go to the river as well, but the problem is we don’t have a container terminal on any river”, he says.
He adds that he is pleased that DP World has arrived in the port of Novi Sad, where as early as mid-2020 they are starting to build a container terminal that will create real new value. Due to the needs of the economy, a container terminal will be planned for the Port of Belgrade, and the first ro-ro terminals will also be planned for the ports in Novi Sad and Belgrade. Oil derivatives are also transported to Serbia’s rivers, and MOL company largely supplies products for its consumers in our country from its refinery in Hungary by water.
Logistics Operations Manager at MOL Serbia Jelena Dimovic for Tanjug says that this ensures a continuous level of quality and compliance with EU-mandated standards.
“MOL Serbia relies heavily on river transport in delivering fuel to consumers in Serbia. We see the Danube as a strategic transport model for delivering fuel to our terminals in the Republic of Serbia”, she says.
She adds that water transport is more economical but disadvantageous because weather conditions, ie water levels and ice, cannot be predicted.
“MOL has invested in Serbia in the Sremski Karlovci Oil Terminal, which has ensured continuity in supply to consumers”, she said.
Through the tender for the service of river transport of Euro diesel in Serbia, as well as the international transport of petroleum products, the company Lukoil is seeking for its needs. On the rivers of Serbia, mostly on the Danube, this year there were 250,000 passengers, which is 40,000 more than expected.
