Port of Koper: The shortest route to the Central Europe
Port of Koper’s close proximity to key cities in Central and South-Eastern European markets is with direct container connections from Far East providing the shortest route to Europe.
The multipurpose Port of Koper, being well positioned in the north Adriatic sea in close proximity to various big cities in Central to South-Eastern European markets, is in recent years experiencing a significant growth with its hinterland markets due to the improved direct container connections from Far East as well as improved regular railway container services to Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, etc.
Luka Koper, port and logistic system, d.d. is a public limited company, which develops and manages the Port of Koper, the only Slovenian seaport of very strategic interest. The company operates all 12 specialised terminals in the multipurpose port, handling all types of cargo: containers, cars and Ro-Ro, various general cargo products, reefer goods and pharmaceuticals, dry bulk, liquid bulk and passengers. The total throughput of the port in 2015 was 20,7 million tonnes, including 790,000 TEUs and 607,000 car units, making Koper port the largest container terminal in Adriatic and one of the largest car terminals in the Mediterranean.
The Port of Koper has a strategic geographic position in the North Adriatic region and therefore important opportunities for servicing its hinterland Central European markets. It represents the shortest link from the Far East via Suez to Europe with a distance that is about 2,000 nautical miles shorter compared to other North-European ports and consequently enabling around 5 days shorter transit time; this advantage enables the optimization of the whole supply chain with substantial cost and time savings for the customer, making it more efficient especially for deliveries of time sensitive cargo,. This fact has been acknowledged also by the latest published Drewry study (2016) – the study analysed the transport of one 40’ft container from Shanghai to Muenchen in southern Germany through various North European and Adriatic ports, and Koper port resulted as the best option for shippers with time-sensitive cargo.
The majority of the port’s throughput is destined for the hinterland countries, namely: Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Italy and the former Yugoslav markets. The port is with many daily container trains well connected to main business centers in Central Europe, having also a direct access to the European highway network.
Maritime connections include frequent Mediterranean feeder and other short sea trade services, but Koper port has especially good container connections with Far East and South-East Asia with weekly arrivals and competitive transit times: 2M Alliance (of Maersk and MSC) is weekly calling Koper as the first port of call in Adriatic sea, and Ocean3 Alliance (including CMA-CGM, Cosco-CSCL, UASC and Evergreen+ MOL) is calling Koper as first and last port of call in the Adriatic sea.
Container connections between Indian ports and Koper port (CMA-CGM, Hapag Lloyd, MSC, Maersk, ZIM) have been recently well improved with shorter transit times of 18-24 days. Koper port is an EU border inspection post with possibility of fiscal clearance and fiscal warehousing; in an excellent cooperation with the port community participants it provides continuous handling operations (24/7) including full support of customs authorities (simplified customs procedures, inspections) and smooth deliveries of customs cleared goods in arrival during weekends like any working day (ie. 7 days weekly).
The main development focus of Koper port will be on containers and cars. The development plan of the Container terminal anticipates the extension of Pier No. 1 and the construction of new facilities, enabling an annual throughput of 1.3 million TEUs by 2020.
