Rijeka, March 6, 2023 - Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, visited Rijeka on Monday and toured the location of the future Rijeka Gateway container terminal.

 

The new terminal is expected to open in 2025. It is being jointly developed and managed by ENNA Logic, a company from the ENNA Group, and APM Terminals, which is part of the Danish Maersk Group (APM Terminals 51%, ENNA Logic 49%).

 

Prime Minister Frederiksen, accompanied by Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, met with the leading people of the project. ENNA's board president Pavao Vujnovac was also present at the presentation.

 

- Rijeka is very important both politically and economically, not only for Croatia but also for the whole of Europe - Prime Minister Frederiksen said, expressing her satisfaction with the cooperation between Croatian and Danish companies on the construction of a container terminal.

 

Cheaper and faster transport

 

Rijeka Gateway will be the most modern terminal in this part of Europe, it was pointed out at the presentation of the project. The advantage of the terminal is the depth of the sea along the operational coast of up to 20 meters.

 

The cooperation between Enna Logic and Maersk will establish a logistics corridor from Rijeka, through Croatia, to the hinterland of Central Europe, which is expected to shorten and reduce the cost of transporting goods from Asia to Central European countries.

 

The future terminal will be part of the global network of APM Terminals while using ENNA's excellent knowledge of the local Croatian market.

 

- We will employ at least 300 people at the terminal itself, and together with the companies ENNA Logic and Maersk, we will employ around 1,100 people in the coming years, while indirect employment will be many times higher - pointed out Rijeka Gateway director Koen Benders.

 

480 million euros investment

 

- A total of 480 million euros will be invested in the project by 2026. It is an investment that covers the terminal, but also the entire logistics chain and all the activities that are necessary for the inland route to function efficiently and quickly logistically - said Tomislav Žunić, financial director of Rijeka Gateway and added that this is a project that changes the position of Rijeka in the logistics map of Europe.

 

In the first phase, the terminal will be able to receive and process 650,000 containers, and in the second phase, more than one million containers.

 

Green terminal

 

In line with Maersk's plans to completely decarbonize its fleet by 2040, this terminal will also use primarily electrical equipment. This also applies to large coastal cranes that not only work on electricity, but also produce it, when lowering containers. Container transport vehicles inside the terminal will also be electric, all with the aim of achieving carbon neutrality in the future.

 

The terminal will be managed by remote with special equipment for tracking containers. This equipment is in line with APM Terminals' carbon neutrality strategy and the Terminal of the Future concept.

 

Investment in infrastructure

 

Prime Minister Plenković said that the construction of the terminal is one of the most important infrastructure projects in the country at the moment. In addition to this project, work is being done in parallel on the construction of a low-lying railway from Rijeka via Zagreb to the Hungarian border, and work is underway on the D-403 road from the terminal to the junction on the Rijeka ring road, said the Prime Minister.

 

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butković announced that the opening of the D-403 road is expected in July this year. He reminded that the concession contract for the terminal was signed two years ago.

 

- We got a respectable concessionaire, APM Terminals, for which this is the seventy-sixth terminal in the world, in cooperation with Enna Logic, one of the most respectable companies in the region in logistics and transport - said Butković.