SOFIA: The business plan of Port Varna EAD for 2015 envisages investments of around BGN 6.5 M, according to CEO Petar Seferov.
Seferov, as cited by the Cherno More newspaper and investor.bg, informs that the money will be spent on new equipment and facilities, depending on the anticipated cargo.
“A total of BGN 6 M is to be invested in infrastructure, despite the fact that this is mainly the job of the State Enterprise Port Infrastructure,” the CEO of Port Varna EAD says in the interview.
He informs that the amount of cargo processed at the two terminals of the port, Port Varna East and Port Varna West, stands at around 10 million tonnes, adding that export shipments traditionally account for around 70% of the cargo.
Seferov notes that the volume of containers has increased by 46 000 tonnes, while their share has gone up by 2%.
In his words, the amount of containers processed in 2014 exceeds 132 600 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit).Bulk containers make up an average of 65% of the cargo.
Port Varna East reports 90% of bulk shipments, while Port Varna West reports 55% of bulk shipments and over 1 million tonnes of liquid cargo.
The amount of general cargo processed at the port stands at over 700 000 tonnes, including large diameter pipes.
Since the beginning of 2015, a total of over 2.1 million tonnes of cargo has been processed at the port, up by 26% from the same period of 2014.
As regards the progress of the project for an intermodal terminal at Port Varna, the State Enterprise Port Infrastructure has signed a company with a contractor selected through a competitive tender for the designing of the facility, according to Seferov.
The CEO of Port Varna points out that Bulgaria currently lacks a modern port terminal specialized in handling grain exports.
He suggests that the problem should be remedied with the new intermodal terminal.
Seferov says that a total of 33 visits of cruise ships with 7500-8000 passengers have so far been scheduled for the new season, against 36 ships in 2014 and three times more passengers.
