May the 17th, 2024 – Traffic and infrastructure upgrades are urgently needed on Rijeka’s roads as Rijeka Port could result in 10,000 trucks on the road every single day, according to one traffic expert.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, investments in transport and logistics infrastructure are urgently needed in and around Rijeka. This is because of the construction of a new terminal in Rijeka Port, which will mean that around 10,000 trucks per day, or one million per year, will head inland. That will lead to infrastructure issues, as was pointed out at the SCM Forum 2024 supply chain conference recently.
“Huge European players have recognised the potential port of the northern Adriatic, this means that after the construction of a new terminal, Rijeka Port will reach a capacity of one million containers per year from the current 350,000. Everything will have to be somehow translated and delivered to the European markets”, noted Petar Šimić, director of the Primacošped company and president of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce’s Shipping and Logistics Association. However, he added that this opens up fantastic opportunities for all of Croatia, as alternative routes for the European supply chain are constantly being sought.
Tomislav Rožić, a professor at the Faculty of Traffic Sciences of the University of Zagreb, referred to the currently available capacities. He explained how much of a burden is likely to be placed on road traffic. “If we have a million containers in Rijeka Port, the question arises as to who will transport them while the railway is in the current state it’s in. This means that around 10,000 trucks per day, or one million trucks per year, will travel on those roads,” warned Rožić.
Instead of just giving warnings, he also readily offered a solution that Croatia has been lagging behind with for many years now – the railway. “Croatia has an obligation to use this potentials, so we urgently need to build railway infrastructure in order to not miss this proverbial development train of the European supply chain. I expect that this will end up being done, but it’s high time that we understand how strategically important this area truly is,” emphasised Rožić.
The conference also discussed the lack of storage capacity, which is another thing Croatia chronically lacks. That said, it’s quietly encouraging that major investments are currently underway that will practically double the current capacity of 1.3 million square metres next year.
Nuccia Basanić from Colliers placed special emphasis on the importance of strategically connecting different profiles of logistics operators on projects such as the Meridian 16 Business Park in Velika Gorica. Among the large investments that are currently being realised, she singled out Log Expert Five near Osijek, the Accolade Park Zagreb North project in economic area of Bistra and Westgate LogCity near Zaprešić.
Igor Žula, president of the Slovenian Logistics Association, pointed out that the ports of the northern Adriatic can continue to do well and become an important supply corridor for Europe. He did warn however that the overall capacities of these ports is still small compared to ports located on the North Sea such as Rotterdam with 19 million containers, and Antwerp with 16 million containers per year.
“In the supply chain over more recent years, we’ve seen a lot of pressure on costs, so the difference in the distance of the final destination of 100 or 200 kilometres may be the limit of solvency. Slovenia and Croatia lie along the route of five European transport corridors and these opportunities should be used. As far as logistics capacities are concerned, I see a special opportunity for the area around Brežice and Krško, which practically adjoins the surroundings of Zagreb, where large projects are already being implemented,” Žula pointed out.
The SCM Forum 2024 is otherwise the first conference dedicated to supply chains. It was organised by SCM Croatia, a specialised media platform that follows events in the field of supply chains.
