Analysis of the traffic on rivers in Serbia

Cargo handling was under the special regime at the end of the first and until the middle of the second quarter of 2020, because of the introduced measures to avert the spread of infectious disease COVID-19.

Despite the introduced measures, the Port Governance Agency recorded 7,4 million tons of transhipped goods in the first six months of 2020, which is an increase of transshippment by 12 percent compared to the same period last year.

The most frequently transshipped cargoes are gravel, sand and stone aggregates, which together account for 23 percent of transshippments. In second place is grain – 18 percent, while in third place is coal, which account for 14,5 percent. Oil and oil products ranked fourth with 13,5 percent and ores ranked fifth with 10,5 percent.

The largest difference in quantities compared to the same period in 2019 was recorded for coal - 712,259 tons more were transshipped. In addition, 193,360 tons more of oil and oil products were transshipped compared to last year's second quarter. The volume of transshipment of oilseeds, fertilizers and general cargo was also increased, while grain is approximately similar to last year's transshipped quantities.

The global situation with the pandemic has affected cruising. Passenger traffic has been temporarily suspended since mid-March. Until then, only five port calls and 408 embarked and disembarked passengers were recorded, which represents only 1% of the results compared to the same period in the 2019 nautical season.

The predictions for the third quarter are that, despite the good results so far, the global effects of the pandemic will adversely affect the amount of transshipped cargo on the rivers.