The trucks wait in lines of over 30 km to unload their containers at Constanta Port’s terminal, where the storage capacity utilization often exceeds 100%, according to Romanian transport companies that complain about the lack of access to the terminal’s capacity for the Romanian exporters.

When the container terminal experienced an occupancy rate of 103%, the administrators had to refuse 4,000 containers of cargo from Romania, and the local companies had to go to other European ports in order to export the products.

The Romanian transport companies blame the parent company of the terminal operator for the situation, while the Romanian border check authorities are also responsible for the sometimes slower processing of trucks, Bursa daily reports quoting participants in the debate Constanţa Grains & Intermodal Hub, organized on July 7 in Bucharest by Tranzit magazine.

Specifically, the terminal operator decided immediately after February 24 to store in Constanta, for as long as needed, all the containers that should have reached the port of Odesa. Most of the containers were shipped in the meantime - but there are still containers that were not moved for five months.

The daily does not name the entities involved in the operation of the Constanta Port container terminal but points to the Constanta South terminal operated by Constanta South Container Terminal, owned by DP World. The terminal operator reportedly succeeded in lowering the utilization rate of the storage capacity (thus smoothing the traffic) by introducing a surcharge that depends on the occupancy rate.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Claudiu Marius Pascalina/Dreamstime.com)