Luka Koper container transshipment reaches one million in 2022
Koper, 22 December - The port operator Luka Koper boasts a new record. It has become the first Adriatic port whose annual container transshipment has reached one million units. A record has also been reached in the car transshipment. Infrastructure Minister Bojan Kumer promised to strive to remove the main obstacle to the port's development as soon as possible.
Koper
Slovenia's exports still in decline in August.
Photo: Peter Černuta
File photo
Last year, the port missed the one million milestone in container transshipment by some 2,500 container units, while this year the million is expected to be exceeded by some 10,000 units by the end of the year.
At the end of the year, car transshipment is expected to top 800,000, so Luka Koper will become the most important port for cars in the Mediterranean.
Noting that the port exceeds the goals set in its five-year strategy, Minister Kumer said that the state must remove the main obstacle to its development - build the second railway track connecting it to the inland hub of Divača faster.
He said the ministry was striving to have the works completed a few months earlier than scheduled "because every month counts for Luka Koper". Works are scheduled for completion at the end of 2026.
He expects the changes to the law on the Koper-Divača rail project, which are eagerly anticipated by 2TDK, the state-owned firm running the project, to be passed in a few months. This will happen after the planned government reshuffle, when Alenka Bratušek takes over at the Infrastructure Ministry, he said.
In times of uncertainty, when a war is raging on Europe's doorstep, the Slovenian economy is proving that with the right approach, results can be maintained and improved, the minister said.
He said he was glad that Luka Koper was investing in development and that it was being led by people with a clear vision. The company benefited from the decision to buy sufficient quantities of electricity for the next two years at an appropriate price, he added.
The state and the ministry will support the port's development also because Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and other central European countries are counting on Luka Koper, Kumer said.
Luka Koper CEO Boštjan Napast welcomed this, saying that the company was waiting for an expansion or construction of several connecting roads and foremost the modernisation and expansion of the railway station in front of the port. "This is crucial if we are to fully take advantage of the benefits of the new rail track."
The current port's capacity is some 1.2 million units, and if the railway network is improved this could increase to 1.5 million units in five years, Napast said.
The near-by Italian port of Trieste could reach the one million milestone next year if its transshipment rises by 15%, said the head of the port's administration, Zeno D'Agostino.