European Commissioner for transport Violeta Bulc few days ago visited the Slovenian Port of Koper, where she met with the representatives of other North Adriatic ports, members of NAPA Association, the Italian ports of Venice and Triste and the Croatian port of Rijeka.
Representatives of Monfalcone and Chioggia, two Italian ports that have applied to become members of NAPA, also attended the meeting.
Being curious about the development plans of each member port, Commissioner Bulc underlined her sincere interest for the North Adriatic Ports which were recognized as “Core ports” of the TEN-T “core network” already in 2011 and were confirmed as part of the two main European corridors, Baltic-Adriatic and Mediterranean.
Port of Venice intends to build an off-shore terminal for containers and liquefied cargo, a chemical logistic distribution chain and a terminal for Short Sea Shipping. Trieste is planning the enlargement of Pier 7, the construction of a new ferry terminal and a new logistic platform, which will be the base for the future Pier 8.
In Rijeka port, the reconstruction of the container terminal was finished in 2013 and works are already in progress for a new container terminal. They are also working on a concept of a new port on the island of Krk.
And last, Port of Koper is preparing the extension of Pier 1, improving berthing facilities and hinterland connections and constructing new warehousing capacities. On the long run there are plans to extend Pier 2 and built a new Pier 3.
All this infrastructural activities of NAPA ports, mainly focused on the container business, are aimed to reach the potential estimated by MDS Transmodal Ltd. for North Adriatic ports of up to 5,9 million TEUs by the year 2030.