Container quayside extended: new achievement for NAPA4CORE at the Port of Koper

On 23^rdJune at the presence of Slovenian Minister of Infrastructure, Mr. Jernej Vrtovec, took place the inauguration ceremony of the extended container quayside at the southern end of Pier I at the Port of Koper.

The extended quayside with a new berth, named 7D, has been financed within the NAPA4CORE project as part of a large investment which foresees the completion, by the first quarter of 2022, of a storage area of almost 25,000 m2 in the quayside’s hinterland. Thanks to this huge investment, which is worth €45.6 million, the annual capacity of the container terminal will then be one and a half million TEUs. “The containerisation of goods in world trade has reached unprecedented proportions. Shipowners are building bigger and bigger ships and ports need to adapt to this. Otherwise, we would be out of all major commodity flows. That is why the new acquisition, the new berth 7D, is only the beginning,” said the CEO of Luka Koper, Dimitrij Zadel, emphasising the importance of the investment.

Container-handling activity at Pier I started in 1979, when the first 150 m of quay were built. Since then, including the latest extension, the operational quay has been lengthened four times. Today, the container quay is almost 700 m long, with nine container cranes in operation. Next year, there will be 11. In four decades, the port of Koper handled almost 12 million containers (TEUs) at Pier I, two thirds of them in the last 10 years. In terms of containers handled, the Port of Koper operates the largest container terminal in the Adriatic.

Half of all container handled in Koper today already travel by rail, therefore the future development of 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: the Slovenian Minister of Infrastructure, Jernej Vrtovec emphasized that the ministry would do everything in its power to support the development projects of the Port of Koper, as this would also speed up the development of Slovenian logistics.

In the framework of the development plans at the Port of Koper, two new Super-post-Panamax container cranes are expected to be delivered by the end of next year, in addition to the two already there, and after 2022 construction works will start at the northern part of Pier I, which will also be dedicated to containers. “If we take into account that the construction of the second track is worth one billion euros, it is easier to understand the bold and ambitious strategy of Luka Koper to invest half a billion euros by 2025 to take advantage of the increased railway capacities,” said Uroš Ilić, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the company, summarising the strategic business plan.

For more information on the news, please visit Luka Koper web site: https://www.luka-kp.si/eng/news/single/extended-quayside-allows-more-containers-to-be-han-39622

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