TIRANA, Jan. 11 – The construction of new sites to handle goods and creating necessary conditions for high-tonnage ships will be the major two objectives for the country’s biggest port.
In an interview published on the port’s website this week, Eduard Ndreu, the head of the Durres Port Authority, said the extension of Quay 10 and the deepening of the underwater part of the basin will allow ships with a capacity of 30,000 tonnes to anchor in the port, considerably increasing the port’s activity.
Commercial ships and ferries can currently anchor at available quays only in 2,200 linear meters, which authorities describe as insufficient for the future of the country’s biggest port, a hub to the Corridor 8 project.
The design project to deepen the basin and its entry has already finished and would require a euro 15 million investment.
Meanwhile, works in the ferry terminal, which is being reconstructed under a euro 32 million loan by the European Investment Bank and the EBRD are in their final phase.
According to Ndreu, the 2011 port budget will continue focusing on infrastructure to further improve and modernize transport of passengers and goods.
The port’s short-term goal is to create duty-free zones in the whole of the port’s areas like the ones in the ferry and containers terminals to allow faster movement of goods at a lower cost.
“This would be the best invitation not only for transport companies from Albania and Kosovo but also foreigners in the Mediterranean space and beyond,” said Ndreu.
Data show some 3.4 million tonnes of goods were handled in Durres Port in 2010, registering a 280,000-tonne increase compared to 2009.
Commercial ships from 154 ports from 35 countries all over the world arrived in Durres this year. The Port of Durres is by far the largest commercial port in Albania, transporting on average around 80 per cent of the country’s international ship-borne traffic. The port is currently involved in four main activities, ferry operations, cargo operations, container operations and oil storage operations. Durres Port, owned by the Albanian government, is a core part of the regional transport network in Southeast Europe, and an important centre for international trade and travel. Last summer, it inaugurated a new passenger terminal worth 15.2 million euros.
Office in Kosovo
The Durres Port Authority has recently opened its first representation office in Kosovo capital, Prishtina, in an effort to increase trade exchanges with the neighbouring country following the construction of the new highway cutting distance between the two countries to 2.5 hours. Ragip Grainca, the representative of the Durres Port Authority in Prishtina is optimistic more than half of Kosovo imports and exports will be handled in Durres port by next year.
Data from the Kosovo customs offices show Kosovo’s trade exchanges from Durres port accounted for only 20 percent of the total during the first half of this year. Some 80 percent of Kosovo’s trade exchanges was handled in the traditional Tivar and Thessaloniki ports, Montenegro and Greece respectively.
Data show exports to Kosovo have also registered a sharp increase during this year ranking the neighbouring country the second most important destination of Albanian exports with 9.3 billion lek during the first 11 months of this year, up from around 6 billion lek compared to the same period last year. This year’s boom of exports to Kosovo has been especially influenced by the completion of the Durres-Kukes road linking the two countries in the shortest possible way.
