Durres Port records higher trade volume, passenger numbers fall

DURRES, Nov.16 – Durres post released on Thursday data that show higher cargo traffic through October at Albania’s largest Adriatic port. Both exports and imports rose bringing to the port 2,799,598 tons of cargo in the first ten months of 2006. Compared to last year this is a rise of11 percent. The current data show that for the first ten months of 2006, the cargo handling was eight percent higher compared the estimated figures. The figure breakdown show a 49 percent increase in exports totaling 407,962 tons. The imports figure of 2,391,636 million tons was a six percent rise compared to last year. Durres port registers its activity in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). Between January and October, it handled 17,553 TEUs, a 40.9 percent rise from the same period last year.
The number of passengers who traveled through the port through October fell by 0.86 percent. The port handled 605,123 passengers and 173,719 cars, trucks and trailers between January and October. Durres port is the main port of the country, responsible for 80 percent of the trade and passenger flow for all the country’s seaports. The port lies on the strategic western end of European transport Eighth Corridor. This trade artery links the Adriatic and Ionian coasts with the Black Sea coast. It provides an important route to landlocked Macedonia and connects Albania to Bulgaria. (Tirana Times Staff)