Port of Koper extends quayside to increase container traffic
Port of Koper, Slovenia’s single commercial harbour, has achieved a milestone in extending its infrastructure dedicated to container transhipment. There has been prolonged container quayside. The next phase of the investment project is the construction of a new storage area.
Luka Koper, an operating company of the Slovenian single port, is implementing a significant investment project dedicated to infrastructure development. On Wednesday, 23 June, the 100-metre-long extension of the container quayside at the southern end of Pier I was officially inaugurated. As a result, the operational quay was lengthened up to almost 700 metres long and is equipped with nine container cranes. Initially, over 40 years ago, when the Port of Koper started to handle containers, it had a length of only 150 metres.
“The containerisation of goods in world trade has reached unprecedented proportions. Shipowners are building bigger and bigger ships and ports need to adapt to this. Otherwise, we would be out of all major commodity flows,” said Dimitrij Zadel, CEO of Luka Koper.
More storage capacity
The mentioned achievement is part of the crucial investment project being implemented in the port. Its next stage is to put into operation a container storage area of almost 25,000 square metres near the extended quayside. The dedicated construction works are being carried out in the port area. To this end, 770 piles should be installed to support the planned installation.
It is expected that the new storage area will be completed in the first quarter of 2022. This will have a crucial impact on the container handling capacity as the Port of Koper will be able to process 1.5 million TEU containers. Currently, the port’s annual container traffic is around 1 million TEU. The entire investment project costs 45.6 million euros and is partially funded from the European NAPA4CORE project.