In 2020, Serbian ports increased the amount of transhipped goods by 10 percent.
The port of Danube Pancevo, with a million tons of transhipment, activated its potential for trimodal transport in the year of the pandemic, so the containers reached the Chinese Wuhan by rail.
In a statement for Tanjug, the general director of DPT of the company that opened the container terminal with the Port of Danube, Marko Popovic, points out that this is the first trimodal terminal in Serbia in Pancevo, because containers are transshipped for water, railway and road traffic in Pancevo.
“It is an opportunity more for the Serbian market … In the first year, we managed to develop regular railway connections to the Port of Rijeka, which is especially important during the pandemic. During December, the first two trains were shipped from the Port to Wuhan in China to a direct connection from Serbia to China, which should provide a market service that lasts a short transit time of 16-18 days at a competitive price,” says Popovic.
He points out that the advantage of rail container transport is that it covers a larger amount of goods with a significantly shorter transport time.
“The container terminal in the Danube Port has been active for a year, and due to the pandemic, it has been operating effectively for six months, and with more than 6,000 manipulations during that time, it exceeded initial expectations. Especially in December, when we managed to make over 1,700 manipulations, what in import, what in export “, says Popovic.
He emphasizes that the goal is for the terminal next to the ports in the region, such as Rijeka, Koper and Bar, to be connected to Central and Western Europe, which is extremely important from the aspect of the stability of supply chains.
“The goal for this year is to establish a regular connection to Central European and Western European terminals,” Popovic added.
The commercial director of the Port of Danube Pancevo, Sanja Djurisic, said that the ports in Serbia managed to achieve the increased volume of transhipment in the pandemic year 2020, primarily through good organization and timely decisions of the competent ministry.
She added that the Port of Danube recorded the transhipment of more than a million tons of goods, despite the problems with the pandemic and the illness of the employees.
“We are extremely satisfied with our result. At the level of Serbia, exports were drastically increased last year. About 3.5 million tons of corn were exported, of which about 2.5 million tons were exported by the Danube,” said Djurisic.
She stated that, unlike road transport, which suffered a lot due to the coronavirus pandemic, water transport, with the help of all domestic institutions and operators, managed to overcome all difficulties.
The development of the container terminal with DPT Danube Port was planned before the pandemic, and during the pandemic the activity was focused on transport by rail and road. Some containers also came with water.
“The big challenge was to open a new business and develop a container terminal during the pandemic. The first trains left in April. We were skeptical about what it would be like during the pandemic, but container transport turned out to be one of the adequate modes of transport at this point in the pandemic goods,” said Sanja Djurisic.
Pancevo is the only city in Serbia in whose port area four port operators work, because in addition to the Danube Port, there are also the Special Port, NIS and Graneksport.
“Together we generate large amounts of cargo. I think that this is a very important area, and that with the development of the city and industry, the importance of operators will only strengthen, so our development activities must go in that direction,” she said, adding that the Danube Port plans to expand the container terminal and quay, B92 reports.
