New investments for the Koper container terminal
Port operator Luka Koper is investing in upgrading its container terminal and has acquired two new Rail-Mounted Gantries, which will be assembled in the next months and installed on dedicated rails, which are currently being constructed.
Each RMG weighs 300 tons and is electrically powered, which allows quiet operation and no direct gas emissions. They will be used for containers handling on railway sidings of the terminal and will allow higher productivity in comparison to existing handling equipment. In the past months, two additional railway tracks were built and the new RMGs will be able to operate on five trainsets. An additional third RMG is to be delivered in 2017.
The investments are dictated by the growth of container traffic, which increased by 158 % in the last eight years, reaching 790.736 TEUs in 2015. »We can’t afford to fall behind our competitors. By 2020 we shall invest more than 230 million Euros in the container terminal alone, extending the quayside, stacking areas and purchasing new handling equipment. These investments are crucial if we want to continue to be the first container port in the Adriatic« said Mr. Dragomir Matić, president of the management board of Luka Koper.
The Koper container terminal has in the period 2007-2015 registered higher growth rates than other large terminals around Europe. Since 2010 is also the largest terminal in terms of throughput. In the first six months of 2016 423.265 TEUs were handled, which is an 7,5 % increase compared to the first half of 2015.
For this year, the port operator budgeted an investment plan of 77 million Euros, with an emphasis on the container terminal. Aside the new railway tracks under construction, the company has in plan the expansion of pier 1, which could take place in 2018, a new warehouse for the car terminal, terminals for general and bulk cargo, three new reservoirs for liquid cargo.
The Slovenian port transshipped 355,513 cars in the first half of the year, which is a rise of 22% over the same period in 2015 and the biggest increase among all segments of cargo
