Croatia’s northern Adriatic port of Rijeka welcomed its first commercial container vessel on September 10, as operations officially started at the €380mn Rijeka Gateway terminal, billed as the most advanced in the region.

Opening the terminal contributes to Zagreb’s efforts to position Croatia, and specifically its largest port Rijeka, as a gateway to Central Europe for both goods transport and energy. As well as improving transport links Croatia previously also invested in an offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Krk. 

The 368-metre-long Al Jasrah, arriving from Port Said, Egypt, symbolically inaugurated the new terminal, which is a joint investment by Dutch-based APM Terminals and Croatia’s ENNA Group.

“This is a historic moment not only for Rijeka and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, but for the whole of Croatia,” Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Oleg Butković told reporters on the quayside, a government statement said. “It took a long time for us to see this picture today, the arrival of a ship at one of the most modern and advanced terminals in Europe.”

Butković recalled “numerous challenges and obstacles”, including the construction of state road 403. “At one point the World Bank almost left the story,” he said. “We sat down with the government and agreed, then managed to obtain European funds for the road that is an integral part of the project and a condition for the terminal to operate.”

The Rijeka Gateway terminal is designed to handle 650,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) annually in its first phase, rising to more than 1mn TEU after expansion. The quay currently stretches 400 metres with a depth of 20 metres, to be extended to 680 metres in the next phase.

“This terminal is a symbol of Rijeka as a modern, sustainable and technologically advanced port that creates value and drives the local and national economy, while taking care of the community and the environment,” said Peter Corfitsen, general director of Rijeka Gateway.

He noted that the terminal already employs about 250 people and expects to reach 300. “We must show that everything we have built, from the infrastructure to the team, can function on a daily basis at the highest level of operational excellence that our customers expect,” Corfitsen said.

Tomislav Rosandić, the terminal’s chief financial officer, spoke of the intense preparation, including training employees. 

“Quality rail connectivity is extremely important for our terminal, so we strongly support the construction of a lowland railway that will enable Rijeka to become an entry point to Central and Southeastern Europe,” Rosandić added. 

The facility has four remotely operated ship-to-shore cranes, 15 rubber-tyred gantry cranes, two rail-mounted gantry cranes and 28 terminal tractors, all controlled from a single centre. Operations are fully automated and powered by renewable energy, making it “the first of its kind in the Adriatic region”, according to a government statement.

Chief product officer for ocean at AP Moller-Maersk Johan Sigsgaard welcomed the addition to the company’s network, saying Rijeka Gateway “further strengthens connectivity and provides greater value to our customers and their supply chains.”

Denis Vukorepa, director of the Port of Rijeka Authority, called the project “the largest, most important and most complex generational project in the Port of Rijeka,” estimating total investments in the terminal and related transport infrastructure at around €600mn.

The development also includes the renovation of Warehouse 22 in the Metropolis complex, now the terminal’s administration building. The historic structure was restored under strict conservation oversight and equipped with modern earthquake-resistant measures.

While hailing the achievement, Butković stressed the need to accelerate the long-planned lowland railway to fully realise Rijeka’s potential. “Without the new railway we will not be able to be the most successful and the best,” he said. “We will do everything to speed up this process because we have European funds at our disposal.”