90% of the maritime transported goods are processed in the Port of Durrës

Open Data Albania is investigating into the volume of transported goods at Port of Durrës. The need for investigation is related to the decision of the Albanian Government to terminate the existence of Durrës Port as a Merchants Port, transforming its territory into a luxury residential area and a port for vessels for individual use only. The data provided by the Institute of Statistics have very little information on the volume and categories of goods and services by value versus the national trade and transport. This article will present data on the volume of goods processed in the Port of Durres in the last decade, identifying the growing trend or interest in transport through this Port.

Durrës or, as it is known since antiquity, Dyrrahu, is developed since ancient times as an important gateway for the region. The Roman Empire or the Byzantine Empire in the VII to XII century, recognized Durrës as one of the main pillars of trade. The city is long characterized by the development that came along with this Seaport. The port has already exceeded its processing capacity of 1000 tons per linear meter five decades ago, and it also has piers that allow storage and processing of crude ore intended for transport. Currently, the Albanian Government states that it will enable the transfer of the Port and Maritime Volume from Durrës to Porto Romano. The latter is a port for which there is no detailed technical project yet and a service provider is needed to create one. The detailed design of the New Integrated Commercial Port of Durrës in Porto Romano is the object of a call for tenders published in June 2021 by the State Authorities. In any case, an initial project may not be ready until at least the second half of 2022, while a feasibility study is expected to objectively take even longer than the Project. The relocation of the Port of Durres leads to many questions regarding the European Project known as the (Commercial) Corridor VIII, an important corridor for our country and very crucial for the national economy. This Project, Corridor VIII, is a program the country should aim and compete for development. One of the alternatives for the development of international transport in the Region is Corridor X, which engages two other important ports of the Region, located in neighboring Greece.

The largest volume of goods in the Port of Durres was recorded in 2019 with 4.6 million tons of goods. The year 2020 has seen a decline in freight transport through this port as a result of restrictions on shipping to some countries caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.  The lowest volume of goods entering and leaving the port of Durres was recorded in 2016.

Our country currently has four Seaports that guarantee the processing of goods, namely Durres, Saranda, Shengjin and Vlora. In 2018, the port of Durrës has done 92.9% of the total volume of goods transported by ports, doing thus the largest ever realized volume of goods versus the total. In 2020, this port despite the impact of the pandemic, has played a major role in the exchange of goods, maintaining a strong position versus other ports by 90.8%. As illustrated in the table presenting the weight of the Port of Durres in the Maritime Trade of Goods, the Removal of the Port of Durres from the Map of Seaports, while a Replacing Port is not yet Designed, Studied, Initiated, Built, Tested, Accredited and Consolidated, could damage the national economy by shrinking the marine trade capacity by about 90%.

The Port of Durres has played a crucial role in the exchange of commercial goods with other countries while we still do not have a Feasibility Study on the potential capacities and yields of the port of Porto Romano for exchanging this volume of goods realized so far through the port of Durres.

Concession and PPP Contracts, in force, data, and Documents on Companies Registered for their Implementation, are published in an easily accessible and well-structured format under the OpenCorporates.al. portal, Concession Register Database. The Excel document of this article contains data and information on the basis of which the visualization is done. This document is easily downloadable and free to use. Other databases of the AIS Organization include; spending.data.al; OpenPocurement.al, and Open Corporates.al

This research paper is being published as part of the Open Data, Access and Transparency over sectors to Risk of Corruption project.

Download excel: Volume of Work at Port of Durrës, 90% of the maritime transport goods processed in Durres
Comment and Analysis: Open Data Albania
Translated by: Etleva Kondakçi