February 18, 2023 - More than 342.7 thousand ships or 10.4 percent more than in 2021, entered Croatian ports last year, and there were 33.8 million passengers or 23.8 percent, which is still fewer passengers than in pre-pandemic 2019, by 4.9 percent, according to the data of the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). The total turnover of goods in seaports from January to December 2022 increased by 9.1 percent compared to 2019 and amounted to 23.6 million tons.

According to data from the CBS for the fourth quarter of last year, seaports achieved growth in the number of ships and passengers annually - 62.98 thousand ships or 4.9 percent more arrived than in the last quarter of 2021, writes Index.

The most passenger traffic recorded in Split

In the fourth quarter of 2022, 4.3 million passengers were boarded and disembarked in Croatian seaports, which is a 17.1 percent increase compared to the same period in 2021. However, statisticians note that compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, there was still a drop of 3.9 percent.

4.1 million passengers were transported on ferries and passenger ships in the fourth quarter of 2022, which is 14.5 percent more than in the same period of 2021.

Passenger traffic in seaports in the fourth quarter of 2022 was the highest in Split, with 707.7 thousand passengers or 21.9 percent more than in the last quarter of 2021. The port of Zadar followed with a total traffic of 423.2 thousand passengers or 15.7 percent more, and the third was the port of Preko (on the island of Ugljan) with 353.7 thousand passengers or 8.5 percent more than in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Increase in the number of vehicles on ferries

Data from CBS show that in the fourth quarter of last year, compared to the same period of the previous year, seaports also recorded an increase in the number of passenger vehicles and buses that were loaded and unloaded from ferries - more than 772 thousand passenger vehicles, an increase of 5.6 percent, while the number of buses increased by 16.3 percent, to 5,412.

Statisticians also note that of the total number of passengers in seaports, 168,000 of them were disembarked from cruise ships, which compared to the last quarter of 2021, is an increase of as much as 126.8 percent. According to data from CBS, the total turnover of goods in the fourth quarter of 2022 was 5.8 million tons, an increase of 6.3 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2021.

Growth in freight traffic

The CBS explains this with the growth of liquid cargo turnover by 21.8 percent (with a share in the total turnover of goods of 48 percent) and turnover of dry bulk goods by 2.6 percent (a percentage of the total turnover of goods of 29 percent) compared to the same the period of 2021. At the same time, on an annual level, tons of goods in containers decreased by 14 percent (with a share in the total turnover of goods of 15 percent).

Of the five ports that realise 90 percent of the total turnover of goods in seaports, statistics registered a noticeable increase in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021 in the ports of Omišalj, by 28.4 percent (to 1.7 million tons). , and Ploče, by 17 percent (to 1.3 million tons).

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July the 14th, 2022 - From all the way up in Rijeka to all the way down to Dubrovnik, let's look at the list of the most popular Croatian ports during the first half of this year as tourism returns to normal in the post-pandemic period.

As Morski writes, the State Bureau of Statistics has published a report on cruise ship arrivals in Croatian ports in the first five months of this year. The most visited port in the last half a year has of course been Dubrovnik.

In the period from January to May 2022, 48 foreign cruise ships entered Croatian ports with 135 cruises successfully completed. There were 97 thousand passengers aboard those ships, who stayed in Croatia for a total of 278 days. In the same period back in 2021, no entry of a foreign ship in any Croatian port for a round trip was recorded due to the epidemiological measures introduced across Croatia, Europe and most of the rest of the world to prevent the further spread of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus.

Compared to the first five months of the pre-pandemic, record year of 2019, the number of trips by foreign cruise ships to Croatian ports up and down the coastline decreased by 21.1 percent, the number of days the ships stayed in those ports decreased by 28.0 percent, while the number of passengers on those ships decreased by a massive 60.9 percent.

Foreign cruise ships in the first five months of 2022 sailed under the flags of 11 countries in total. The largest number of trips by foreign cruise ships in Croatian ports was made under the flag of the Bahamas, with 34 trips in total, which is 25.2 percent of the total amount of trips made in the first five months of 2022. This flag was followed by cruises made under the flags of Malta (22 trips) and of Panama (17 trips).

Out of a total of 135 round trips, most of them were realised down in Dubrovnik-Neretva County (45.2 percent) and Split-Dalmatia County (31.9 percent), which is a total of 77.1 percent. The remaining 22.9 percent of trips into Croatian ports were made in the following counties: Zadar (15.5 percent), Sibenik-Knin (3.7 percent), Istria (3.0 percent) and Primorje-Gorski Kotar (0.7 percent).

The Port of Dubrovnik rather unsurprisingly had the most visits by foreign cruise ships (90 visits), followed by the ports of Split (68 visits), Zadar (35 visits), Korcula (17 visits), Sibenik (15 visits) and Hvar (14 visits).

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ZAGREB, 23 May 2022 - Croatia's Adriatic seaports could be alternative routes for the transport of the grain supplies to north Africa from Ukraine whose Black Sea ports are being blocked, Foreign and European Affairs Ministry State Secretary, Andreja Metelko Zgombić, said on Monday in Brussels. 

The Croatian official attended a General Affairs Council that focused on preparations for the next two EU summit meetings, on Ukraine, food supply safety, and energy topics.

During the discussion, I said that Croatian seaports at the Adriatic are available and that they can be an efficient and short route for the export of Ukrainian grains to north Africa, said Metelko Zgombić.

As part of the EU's solidarity response with Ukraine, the European Commission has recently presented a set of actions to help Ukraine export its agricultural produce, and one of the measures is "Solidarity Lanes" for the transport of the exported cereals from Ukraine.

"Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its blockade of Ukrainian ports, Ukrainian grain, and other agricultural goods can no longer reach their destinations. The situation is threatening global food security and there is an urgent need to establish alternative logistics routes using all relevant transport modes," the EC reported on 12 May.

The EC proposes those ‘Solidarity Lanes" to ensure Ukraine can export grain, but also import the goods it needs, from humanitarian aid to animal feed and fertilizers. "

 The RePowerEU plan was also today on the agenda of the General Affairs Council.

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February the 2nd, 2021 - Croatian Adriatic ports continue to be in a decent position despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the related economic woes. Online trade is also growing, which is something we've seen massive increases of throughout the duration of the pandemic.

As Sinisa Malus/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, container transport by rail between China and Europe has greatly increased when compared to last year. It is known that the New Silk Road has been used less frequently for freight transport for years, but it has only recently become a current option due to the new situation in the transport of goods from the Far East, writes Sinisa Malus for SEEbiz.

In terms of rail transport, 40-foot-tall freight DRY containers are used for the transport of general cargo, and various machinery, machines or parts of machines, electronic components, metal and plastic products and the like are mostly transported.

As far as maritime transport is concerned, it is still the most popular freight option because it is the most affordable of all. It offers a wide range of transport services from full (FLC - full load container), groupage containers (LCL - less container load), as well as special special transport solutions tailored to the needs of all users.

For Central European countries such as Slovakia, Austria or Hungary, Croatian Adriatic ports like Rijeka, and that of Koper on the Slovenian side, are extremely important. If we take the Hungarian capital of Budapest as an example, we can see that the distance from Koper or Rijeka is only 570 kilometres, while from Hamburg it is as much as 1,200 kilometres. Thus, goods from Croatian Adriatic ports and indeed those of Slovenia reach their end destination much faster.

Carriers continue to count on the development of Rijeka's transport route and the expansion of intermodal services to third countries.

This has also been confirmed by the cargo partner. They say that although the volume of transport recorded a slight decline compared when to the previous year and despite the overall challenging market environment, the company can call last year a success thanks to its customised emergency solutions and flexible alternatives. One of them is the Adria Priority Express service, transport services from Asia to Adriatic ports. According to the logistics supplier, transit times from the main ports of the Far East to these Adriatic ports are on average 5-8 days shorter than to North Sea ports such as Hamburg or Bremerhaven.

''It can be noticed that, depending on the type of goods, we can talk about an increase in turnover following the growth of online trade in Croatia and the immediate region, consumer goods, sports equipment, food supplements, technical equipment, etc,'' they explained from this company.

Statistics also confirm the growth of container traffic. The Jadranska vrata compan recently reported on a new record at the Brajdica container terminal in the port of Rijeka - 300,000 container units (TEU) were transhipped last year. This new record, as they point out, gains even greater significance when viewed in the context of 2020 in which almost all fields were deeply affected by the devastating coronavirus pandemic.

The company Jadranska vrata was founded way back in 2001 as a subsidiary of the Port of Rijeka, and ten years later, in 2011, a strategic partner, International Container Terminal Service Inc., joined the company. (ICTSI). That Philippine company holds a 51 percent stake in AGTC and the Port of Rijeka it boasts a 49 percent stake.

''If there are no major market shocks such as the current situation (lockdown, lack of containers, lack of passenger flights), we expect market recovery and slight growth,'' concluded the cargo partner.

Currently, the market is experiencing increased demand for imports, which has resulted in the rapid filling of shipping capacity. In other words, it takes time for containers from European ports to physically return to China, in order to be operational again for the import transport of goods. For these reasons, as well as breaks for the Chinese New Year, the transport of goods by sea, as the most economically viable option, has been practically overbooked until March this year.

The year ahead should bring the outcome of the future of the container terminal in Rijeka, after the Governing Board of the Port of Rijeka Authority suddenly decided to cancel the international tender for the selection of concessionaires at the end of 2020.

Binding bids were received for the tender, one from a Chinese corporation consisting of Ningbo Zhoushan Port Company Limited (which manages the largest port in China and the world), Tianjin Port Overseas Holding Limited and China Road and Bridge Corporation (the company that is building Dalmatia's Peljesac bridge), and the consortium consisting of APM Terminals (a subsidiary of the shipping giant Maersk) and Enna Logic (part of the Croatian energy and logistics concern PPD Group).

The decision to annul will further stretch the already too long strip of about 400 metres long operational shore, whose construction took a full seven years (almost 15 years have passed since the first, unsuccessful attempt to build it), and about 120 million euros have been invested in it so far.

The construction of the first phase of the terminal was completed back in June 2019. The concessionaire is expected to invest more than 150 million euros in equipping the terminal and upgrading another 280 metres of operational shoreline and putting them into operation, which would more than double the capacity of Rijeka as a container port.

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September the 4th, 2020 - The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has been a thorn in the side of many a previously planned investment and project, with many of them having been shelved to await better economic circumstances or even written off entirely. Fortunately, this isn't always the case, and the planned Croatian port infrastructure projects on Lastovo and Korcula, as well as on the Peljesac peninsula, worth 700 million kuna in total, are still going ahead.

As Morski writes on the 3rd of September, 2020, Dubrovnik-Neretva County Prefect Nikola Dobroslavic and his associates held a web conference recently with the directors of Croatian port authorities in the area of ​​the country's southernmost county, on the topic of port infrastructure projects which are worth the aforementioned figure of 700 million kuna.

These are projects for which, as County Prefect Nikola Dobroslavic pointed out on this occasion, funds have been provided and which are already in various stages of implementation.

''Eight Croatian port projects and the Korcula - Racisce road, which are in various stages of implementation, are worth more than 700 million kuna and are financed almost entirely by European Union (EU) funds,'' explained the prefect of Croatia's southernmost county, and pointed out that providing the funds for these large projects was preceded by extensive preparation.

It is also worth mentioning that the last in a series of projects for which a construction contract was signed was Nova luka - Polaciste on the Dalmatian island of Korcula worth almost 190 million kuna in total, and to which the project of building an access road worth more than 171 million kuna is connected.

A building permit for the new port of Perna, a decision on financing the extension of the port of Ubli on Lastovo and the completion of all of the necessary documentation for the extension of the port of Prigradica are expected soon.

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