Europe : Albania : Durres  Port  Authority

History:

DURRES Port, located only 39 kilometers from Tirana (the capital), is the most important seaport in Albania and the a principal gateway to the Balkans and southeastern Europe.

It is the most ancient town of the country. The city was colonized by the Greeks in 727 BC. In the VI-VII centuries BC the Illyrians knew it under the name Epidamnos. Three centuries later the ancient Roman renamed it Dyrrachium (the town between two hills).

About the year 146 BC the Romans built Via Egnatia, which passed through Dyrrachium , to link Rome with Byzantium (Istanbul). Segments of this road are still extant today. There has always been a port in Durres. It has existed since ancient times, and due to its natural position it has witnessed its growth and development and has become the biggest sea-port of Albania.

Overview :

Durres Port Authority

The Port of Durres is the principle port in Albania, handling roughly 90 per cent of the country’s international maritime trade tonnage and 85 % of all the export and import trade of the country. The actual level of traffic is about 3 ,8 million tons per year.

Today Port is managed by Port Authority, that’s mean the legal entity which represents the public interest and perform the administration of the public property, defined by Law, and which is established to exercise its powers and duties within the public ports in the Republic of Albania.

The port is owned by the state and is controlled by the Ministry of Public Works, Transports and Telecommunications through the Sea Transport Directorate and it is managed and operated by the DPA – (Durres Port Authority).

The harbor is well sheltered by land and breakwaters to the east and west, and it has an easy access from the sea. All these attributes provide excellent safety conditions for ships calling the port.

It provides a wide variety of operating and cargo services. It serves as the principal gateway to the Pan-European Route 8 corridor through the Balkans and serves to a region of about 40 million inhabitants and encompasses Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and parts of Bulgaria and Rumania.

The port has a basin of 670,000 square km, a general surface area of 1.2 million square m and berth depths varying from 7.4 to 11 meters. The land to quay ration is 3.5 ha per 100 linear meters of quay. With 2.2 km of operational quays and specialized 11 berths, the Port of Durres is capable of handling a variety of bulk, general, container, ferry and Ro-Ro services for cargo and passengers and heavy lift cargoes. The Ferry Terminal is capable of handling 5 ferries at one time and provides services to 800,000 passengers per year.
The port offers approximately 243,000m2 of open storage area and 27,000m2 of covered storage including here 7,000m2 of new transit shed.

Turn over

The turnover for 2008 has been 17 100 000 euro and for 2009 is expected to be about 18 200 000 euro

Our vision:

- To make the Port Authority fruitful and more oriented towards the market economy, to increase competition, to be economically developed through direct investments from the private sector, for the reduction of public expenses and port modernization.
- To change the port from “a service port” into “a land lord port”, to increase the commercial independence of the port.
- To bring port services and infrastructure nearer to the international practices, for equal standards between states.
- To assure a high scale level of services, in order to fulfill the users’ needs at a reasonable cost.
- To guarantee a high level security and environment protection.
- To assure a high level of independence for the port management as well as for various port operators that carry out their services in the port.
- To assure leasing or concession for some given facilities for port activity.
- To coordinate the maritime activity and the transport system according to the standing legislation.

Our mission is to provide the shipping communities and port users with modern port facilities, operating systems, and administration to facilitate the efficient and secure transfer of their goods between maritime and land based transport systems at competitive rates.

Operative Structure

Port of Durres is a “Service-Tool Port”. The greater part of cargo handling activity, mainly general cargo, is carried out by two private stevedoring companies. The rest, mainly bulk cargo, is carried out by the stevedoring sector of Port of Durres Authority.

The Port of Durres is the largest economic generator in Albania. It’s direct, indirect, and tertiary impacts are felt throughout the country. It directly employs 600 persons. Indirectly, however, it creates thousands of jobs in the transportation, distribution, and banking industries.

Challenges

Today the port is going through a period of major change as Albania adjusts to a new economic reality. It no longer functions in a captive, one dimensional, command driven world. To survive it must be able to successfully compete in an global, dynamic, rapidly changing market place where competition is fierce and unrelenting. Our port had been designed for a different era of commerce and technology which has disappeared throughout much of the globe. Now, we must compete in a world of containers, just in time delivery, economies of scale, rapid discharge systems, high security, computerization, and global communications.

Substantial investments are being made to change the Port of Durres into a really competitive port. Il last two years the DPA has invest more than 30 million euro in

Infrastructure Works such are the new Ferry Terminal Building; yards and secondary roads, valued 19 million Euros(to be finished in December 2009). Quay and yards rehabilitation valued 10 million euro is in tender phase,
More than 10 million euro are invested in SUPERSTRUCTURE WORKS, such as procurement of a 65 ton capacity mobile harbor mobile crane , reconstruction of two general cargo cranes, procurement of brand new Tug masters ,container handling equipments; work safety equipments etc.

Deep in the heart and psychic of all shippers using the Port of Durres five years ago were the fear of losing their cargo as it passes the night in the port. We shared their fears. The Durres port in 2005 was black listed in IMO and US Coast guard reports regarding the security issues.

From Jan 3rd 2006 Durrës Port Security Force (D.P.S.F) started exercising its mission. Recently D.P.A has completed the project of “Port Security System Implementation in Compliance With the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code” financed by DPA own funds valued at 3 million euro .The projects include the full CCTV, CCTV Perimeter Vehicle Monitoring Access Control System, Gates, barriers and turnstiles, Screening equipment, Security control room , Identity & access cards , Port alarm system, stuff training etc.
The last report of US Coast guard of august 2009 qualify the Durres Port secure and safe, ready to apply for ISPS compliant.

We have two primary goals for our near term development. These are:

1. To privatize the port’s operating functions such as stevedoring, equipment operation, and specialized terminals and become primarily a landlord organization focused on the development of a modern, efficient port in accordance with the principles of Albania’s national transportation policy.

2. To develop port facilities, services, and operating efficiencies at competitive costs in accordance with normal international standards and practices.

Our principal objectives for privatization are as follows:

1. To implement a new port law that confers the exclusive responsibility for port management, operations and development to the PDA who will then be held accountable as the port’s landlord for the planning and development of the port and for organizing the services provided to its users.

2. To fully privatize stevedoring and related services including the ship to shore handling of cargo, the operation and management of warehouses, the loading or discharge of inland transport vehicles in the port, the management and operation of specialized cargo handling facilities such as container terminals, intermodal yards, distribution centers, grain and cement silos, and liquid bulk facilities.

Our objectives for developing the port’s infrastructure, facilities, and services are to:

1. Remove old facilities that impede current operations and develop modern facilities and operations designed to achieve basic international standards of throughput efficiency.
2. To develop a computerized management information system to allow the port to accurately measure port performance in a real time environment.
3. To develop an automated security check-in system for passenger and vehicle calling ferry terminal.
4. To adopt an indirect cargo discharge system for the handling of general cargo using transit warehouses to speed up operations.
5. To develop the container terminal to tie the port into the global container transport and distribution network.
6. To develop other specialized cargo handling facilities as part of a public/private partnership.
7. To dredge the basin and the channel to a minimum operating depth respectively 11.5 and 12.5 meters and use the dredge material to create new land for the future growth of the port.
8. To create a new tariff that provides incentives to shippers to employ larger more modern vessels to increase economies of scale and cargo handling efficiencies.

The projects enumerated above form the foundation of our strategy for achieving these goals and objectives. Each project addresses a specific problem and is designed to achieve certain objectives that will allow the port to attain its duel goals of increasing port operating efficiency and providing our customers with new or improved services.