Increased volume of cargo handling and passenger traffic on the rivers in Serbia in 2018

Record quantities of cargo were transhiped in Serbian ports and an increase in the number of port calls was recorded in the previous nautical season.

The Port Governance Agency recorded in the previous year the best results so far in cargo handlind. The transhipment of 11.8 million tons of cargo on rivers in Serbia represents an increase of 11.5 percent compared to 2017. This effect was influenced by the increased economic activity in Serbia, and the Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihalović Ph. D. and the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure have announced new investments in the waterway transport.

The most common transhipped type of cargo are gravel, sand and stone aggregates, with share of 26 percent in total quantity of transhipped cargo. Oil and oil products are on the second place, with a share of 18.6 percent, while the ore with a share of 18.4 percent are in third place. Grains are on the fourth place with 13% of the share in total quantity of transhipped cargo.

Implementation of the Action Plan for the Development of Waterborne Transport of the Government of Serbia and the cooperation of the Agency with the line ministry resulted in a total of 75% of goods being transhipped in the declared port areas, which is 5% more than in 2017. For example, three years ago, less than half of the total cargo was transhipped in declared port areas.

The trend of growth continued in the nautical season in 2018. According to the data of the Agency, 1150 port calls cruisers and more than 157 thousand embarked and disembarked passengers have been recorded at six international passenger terminals in Serbia. Compared to 2017, the number of port calls has increased by 15 percent and the number of embarked and disembarked passengers by 20 percent.

The international passenger terminal in Belgrade is still the most attractive to foreign tourists - 587 port calls and 81,344 passengers have been recorded, while Novi Sad and Donji Milanovac had 349 and 143 port calls. International passenger terminal in Golubac, which has been opened in April last year, successfully completed the nautical season with 44 port calls and more than 6,000 passengers. The Agency is planning to open two new international passenger terminal in this year - Zemun and Ram.

In 2018, the Agency continued to improve information technologies, following the strategic goals of the Government of Serbia towards digitization of public administration, more efficient provision of services and simplification of business procedures. In 2018 more than 70% of applications have been submitted to the Agency electronically, through Portal for electronic applications. This significantly saved time and reduced the costs and working hours.

Investing in infrastructure projects and improving the overall conditions for cargo handling will enable the efficient movement of goods and passengers in inland waterway traffic, creating the environment for ports in Serbia to become large logistics centers and multimodal hubs in Southeastern Europe.