Despite the difficulties it is faced with, the only international port in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Brčko Port, managed to achieve good operating results in the first seven months of this year.
Thanks to good hydrologic situation and the increase in business activities of permanent clients, in the period from January to July this year the employees of the port managed to transship 118-000 tons of different goods.
“In that segment of operations, we fulfilled the norm for this year – we transshipped 50 percent more load than in the entire year 2015,” said the Director of the Brčko Port Pero Gudeljević.
The problems that this port faces with are the same every year. One of the burning issues is the navigability of the Sava River.
“Sava River is not navigable at least three months on average every year. During those three months, the capacities of the Brčko Port stand still,” said Gudeljević.
Current capacities of the port that hires 64 workers amount to 200 to 250 thousand tons annually. The biggest clients are Sisecam Soda from Lukavac and Arcelor Mittal from Zenica.
“At this moment, the port capacities are sufficient for the needs of our clients, but as our clients announce the increase in their needs they give us a motive to increase our capacities and improve our services,” Gudeljević said.
Ten million EUR should be invested in this public enterprise in the coming period with the aim of improving and modernizing the port infrastructure.
Three million EUR would be grants, and the remaining funds would be repaid after three years of grace period, with an interest rate of one percent.
“The funds will be invested in the relocation of industrial tracks from the center of the town, which are currently used by the port and other business entities, in the modernization of railways in the port, asphalting and modernization of the operational coast and the vertical quay, modernization of the access road to the port, and procurement of one new crane with more capacity than the existing ones,” Gudeljević said.
Given that there currently exists a principal consent of the EBRD for approval of the loan and that projects are done, Gudeljević said that implementation of these projects might begin early next year.
“In addition to the mentioned projects, in the coming period we also intend to launch business with the transshipping of containers in the port because there is demand for that activity and with minimum investment we can ensure additional income for the Brčko Port,” Gudeljević concluded.
(Source: klix.ba/photo: buziminfo.ba)
