ZAGREB, September 4, 2020 - An agreement for the performance of work under the project "Upgrade of the Rijeka Port Infrastructure - Rijeka Basin" was signed in the northern Adriatic city on Friday.

The agreement is worth HRK 268 million, of which 85% will be co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility. It was signed by the chairman of the Port of Rijeka management board, Dusko Grabovac, and the CEO of the Kolektor Koling company, Tine Vadnal.

The agreement provides for the reconstruction of 109,420 square metres of road surface, 12,161 metres of railway and 1,625 metres of crane track. The work is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

The director of the Port Authority, Denis Vukorepa, said that seven projects, worth a total of €132.8 million, had been launched in the past year for the reconstruction and modernisation of the port, adding that the projects were co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility. He said that documentation was being prepared for new projects in the 2021-2027 period.

Minister of Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butkovic, said that the project showed the importance of EU funding, noting that without co-financing from EU funds it would not be possible to increase the competitiveness and strengthen the port of Rijeka. He said that it was important to properly prepare and implement the projects that would be financed from the fund in which €22 billion has been set aside for Croatia. "It will be the biggest test for this government," the minister said.

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The first Seabin device, a floating “trash can” and seawater filter, was installed on Friday in the passenger port of Rijeka.

Rijeka Based Initiative S.E.A. Donated Seabin Device

The Rijeka-based Initiative S.E.A. (Save, Embrace, Achieve) donated the Seabin device to the Port Authority of Rijeka to raise awareness about the need to protect and conserve the marine environment. The initiative also introduces sustainable solutions for the use and management of marine life as one of its most valuable resources.

Seabin is a floating trash can which constantly filters seawater, collecting plastics, microplastics, detergents, oils and other materials from the surface, preventing them from drifting off to the open sea and harming marine flora and fauna, according to Morski HR on February 10, 2020.

“The initiative was founded to primarily to raise awareness about the need to change environmental attitudes, especially in our oceans, and to foster further debate on the ‘green transition’ which is beginning to take hold in response to the global environmental crisis. The focus of the initiative is to dispose of plastics and micro plastics. It also promotes implementing the most advanced green methods, practices and technologies for better environmental management and utilization of its resources,” they explained.

Seabin Acts as Floating ‘Trash Can’ in Marinas, Yacht Clubs, Ports

According to their website, the Seabin V5 unit is a ‘trash skimmer’ designed to be installed in water at marinas, yacht clubs, ports and any body of water with a calm environment and available suitable services.

The unit acts as a floating trash can which skims the water surface by pumping water into the device. The Seabin V5 can intercept floating debris, macro and micro plastics and microfibers with an additional filter. By acting as a trash skimmer, the Seabin V5 is also able to clean the water from contaminated organic material including leaves and seaweed.

The Seabin V5 can be equipped with oil absorbent pads that absorb petroleum-based surface oils and detergent which is predominant in most marinas worldwide.

Surface Water Passes Through Catch Bag At 25,000 Liters Per Hour

Water is sucked in from the surface where it passes through a catch bag inside Seabin. The device is equipped with submersible water pump capable of displacing 25,000 liters per hour and can be plugged directly into either a 110V or 220V outlet. The water is then pumped back into the marina leaving litter and debris trapped in the catch bag.

The Seabin V5 can catch an estimated 3.9 kilograms of floating debris per day or 1.4 tons per year (depending on weather and debris volumes) including micro plastics as small as 2 millimeters.

Follow our Lifestyle page for more information on environmental initiatives in Croatia. More information about the Seabin V5 can be found on their website and Facebook page.

As Morski writes on the 24th of September, 2019, the Port of Rijeka has been listed as one of the top 100 ports in the LSCI (Liner shipping connectivity index) this year, published since 2006 by UNCTAD.

The index refers primarily to container traffic and is calculated annually, for almost one thousand world ports, based on their connection with shipping lines with other world ports, the efficiency of cargo handling and other parameters.

The LSCI index is one of the benchmarks not only for connectivity but also for the efficiency of container ports, so this listing is among the top 100 in the world not only for the existing container terminal in Brajdica, which is under the management of the Adriatic Gate (Jadranska Vrata), majority owned by the Philippine ICTSI, which has recorded a constant double-digit increase in traffic in percentages in recent years, but also for the prospect of a newly built container terminal.

The best-rated port as calculated by UNCTAD this year is China's Shanghai, with an index of 134.32, followed by Pusan ​​in South Korea, China's Ningbo, and the port in Hong Kong.

In the top ten ports in the world according to the LSCI index, only two are European ports - as expected, Antwerp ranked 6th with an index of 93.73 and Rotterdam ranked 7th with an index of 92.75.

For comparison (if there can be comparisons made between these ports and Rijeka at all, given the scale of container traffic), the Rijeka index is 35.21, which is nearly three times lower than the best-ranked European ports, but it should be noted that in the thirteen years since the publication of UNCTAD's list of best-connected ports, the LSCI index for Rijeka has increased by 3.5 times, from an initial 9.98 2006, to the current 35.21, which is in line with the growth of container traffic over the last decade in the ports of the Northern Adriatic in general, as well as in Rijeka.

Otherwise, from the container ports located in the Northern Adriatic, among the top 100 in terms of connectivity are Koper (Slovenia) and Trieste (Italy), with the Slovenian port ranked 80th in the world, with an index of 36.74, and the Italian port ranked in 84th place, just two places ahead of the Port of Rijeka, with an index of 35.54.

Since the beginning of the publication of this index back in 2006, in terms of connectivity index, all three ports have advanced significantly, Koper was still the best placed, at 168th place, while the ports of Rijeka and Trieste were below 200th place.

The current difference in position of just a few places shows that the connectivity of all three Northern Adriatic ports has more or less equalised. It should be noted, however, that both of the aforementioned foreign ports are far ahead of the Port of Rijeka in terms of container traffic. Last year, Koper recorded a figure of 988 thousand TEUs, which is obviously close to one million, Trieste had 625 thousand TEUs, while the "dial" at Rijeka's Brajdica stood at 227 thousand TEUs, Novi list writes.

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As Suzana Varosanec/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 23rd of May, 2019, investors have recognised the potential, which for the Port of Rijeka, means a step forward to the leading container-logistics centre in the Northern Adriatic.

With new investments, Rijeka is being returned to the former position that it once enjoyed at the tail end of the 1970's, when it was a large and significant port centre. Those have been the type of messages sent to the director of the Rijeka Port Authority, Denis Vukorepa, on the occasion of the completion of the Zagreb Deep Sea Container Terminal (Zagreb DSCT) project in the Port of Rijeka.

There has been a great level of interest from potential concessionaires, including as many as seven of the world's largest operators from Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. Officially, the Chinese, and also the CRBC which is currently building Pelješac Bridge, have made themselves known.

The Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butković, will also visit the terminal at which the works are taking place today. To briefly recall, the most important capital project in the Rijeka Gateway Project II, worth 112.5 million euros, of which 84 million euro is from a World Bank loan, while 28.5 million euros is financed by the state. However, in addition to those amounts, the Rijeka Port Administration has continued to invest 40-50 million euros in its own investments.

When this part is completed, individual talks are expected in June and July when potential concessionaires will present their respective terminal management concepts.

It's certainly not excluded that the interest for the second phase of the construction of the terminal will gain traction, and for which permits have been prepared. The expected term for the signing of a contract currently stands at the end of September.

Traffic in the Rijeka basin in the container area has increased by about ten percent over more recent years, but a more dynamic growth in freight volumes and cargo flow is expected, which is the subject of interest for rail freight operators, and is expected to attract a larger volume of truck traffic.

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Click here for the original article by Suzana Varosanec for Poslovni Dnevnik

What with the playground-like rivalry between neighbours Croatia and Slovenia still going on, however less loudly, one has to wonder just where Croatia might be going wrong in relation to its much smaller neighbour to the north. Slovenia's Koper Port made ten times more money than the not so far away Rijeka Port in Croatia did in 2018.

While Slovenia has indeed attracted more and more tourists over the last few years, Croatia still undoubtedly takes the cake when it comes to making huge income from tourism. Croatia's ports, especially in Dalmatia, can be hectic and chaotic places, with cruise ships coming and going on an almost constant basis and local people's lives disrupted heavily during the tourist season. Rijeka Port, however, while having seen a rise in the number of cruise ships arriving, seems to be losing out quite significantly to the far less ''touristy'' Koper Port.

As Morski writes on the 3rd of March, 2019, the Slovenian Port of Koper enjoyed some very handsome revenues of 226 million euros, equal to one billion and 695 million kuna last year, which is seven percent more than was recorded by the major Slovenian port back in 2017.

Koper Port's net profit rose by a massive 71 percent to an impressive sixty million euros, according to a report from SEEbiz.

At the same time, the largest Croatian port, Rijeka Port, doesn't seem to be doing all that well, at least when compared to Koper. In 2018, according to the available financial report(s), Rijeka Port concluded last year with a total revenue of 171 million kuna, or 22.8 million euros, which is a rather concerning ten times less than the Slovenian Port of Koper. When Rijeka Port deducts some of that amount from its expenditures, a profit of just 848,000 kuna remains.

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