1. Introduction
The ongoing recovery of Croatia’s transportation sector along with development plans in several Croatian seaports offer growing opportunities in cargo handling equipment sales and consulting services for the transport sector.
Almost a full decade after Croatia’s Independence War, its seaports recorded sufficient growth rates to justify development projects. As a consequence of political instability at the beginning of the 90’s, maritime routes changed swiftly and resulted in a sharp traffic decline at Croatian ports. For example, the Port of Rijeka currently records only half, and the Port of Split only 15 percent, of their pre-war cargo traffic. At the same time, the northern Adriatic ports of Trieste (Italy) and Koper (Slovenia) gained ground, and benefited from privatization and/or geographic position and connections to existing mainland transport routes.
Construction of continental ground transportation routes is essential for the development of Croatian ports. This primarily refers to the Pan-European Corridor V, linking Hungary with the Port of Rijeka (Corridor Vb) and the Port of Ploce (through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Corridor Vc). The construction of these highway and railway links is backed by European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and European Investment Bank loans. The Croatian Government’s plan to complete 250km of highways by the end of 2005 together with the Croatian Railways’ EUR 2bn investment plan will rapidly increase competitiveness of Croatian ports, primarily Rijeka and Ploce as terminuses for Pan-European Corridor V branches. Other ports will also benefit from the construction of the Zagreb-Split highway (Zadar, Sibenik and Split, completion due in 2004) and the “Istrian Y” highway (Pula).
All information in this report, including revenues, cargo and passenger traffic, and other financial data, refers to primary port concessionaires, and not to the Port Authorities, as their revenues derive from concession fees rather than port operations.
2. Economic background and regional significance of Croatian ports
3. Cargo Traffic
4. Croatian seaports and development projects
The Port of Rijeka
The Port of Sibenik
The Port of Split
The Port of Ploce
The Port of Omisalj
The Port of Dubrovnik
The Port of Zadar
For a full text of this market research please contact:
The U.S. Commercial Service
U.S. Embassy Zagreb
Thomasa Jeffersona 2
Zagreb, CROATIA
Miroslav Nikolac, Trade Specialist
Tel. +385 1 661 2026
Fax. +385 1 661 2446
e-mail miroslav.nikolac@mail.doc.gov