Significant increase of cargo handling and passenger transport on rivers in Serbia

Port Governance Agency recorded in the first six months of this year significant increase of cargo handling and passenger transport, compared to the same period in 2018.

In Serbian ports 6.28 million tons of cargo were transhipped, which represents an increase of 14% compared to the first half of 2018. The most common transhipped type of goods is gravel, sand and aggregates, with the share of 21% in total transhippment. The ores are in the second place with a share of 20%. Grain are at the third place with a share of 18%, while on the fourth place is the oil and oil products, with share of 12% of in the total transshipment. Favorable market conditions for mercantile products have contributed to the fact that in the first half of 2019 the quantity of transhipped cereals increased by almost 800 thousand tons than after the second quarter of the last year.

At the beginning of this year's nautical season, Agency recorded increased number of port calls and embarked/disembarked passengers. In the first six months 601 port calls and 81,127 embarked/disembarked passengers were registered at  6 international passenger terminals in Serbia. There were 16% more port calls and 15.7% more embarked/disembarked passengers than in the same period in 2018.

The Agency's data show that the most port calls were recorded at the international passenger terminal in Belgrade - 297, followed by Novi Sad- 170 and Donji Milanovac- 91 port calls. The international passenger terminal in Golubac welcomed 34 port calls. Since the beginning of the year, at the Agency’s initiative, the Government of Serbia has declared two new international passenger terminals- in Veliko Gradiste (Ram) and in Kanjiža, which represents the first passenger terminal on the Tisa River in Serbia.

Following the steady trend of cargo handling and passenger transport growth, Agency predicts that more than 13 million tons of cargo will be transhipped in Serbian ports by the end of the year. In regard to passenger transport, Agency predicts 1300 cruise port calls at international passenger terminals, by the end of this year’s nautical season. By achieving this result, passenger transport will exceed the forecasts of Strategy on waterborne transport development, according to which this number of port calls will be reached by 2025.