Zagreb Deep Sea Container Terminal (Rijeka Gateway), the new container terminal of the port of Rijeka, will be completed within a year and a half, the deadline that was announced yesterday in occasion of a visit to the construction site of Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. The latter, as part of a trip to Albania and Croatia to discuss various issues concerning security and stability in the Western Balkans and in Europe including migratory flows that cross the region and the war in Ukraine, went visiting the Croatian port where the Danish shipowning group A.P. Møller-Mærsk, through its subsidiary terminalista APM Terminals and in consortium with the Croatian ENNA Logic, has been awarded the concession of the new container terminal ( of 5 July and 5 November 2021).

The construction of the Croatian port terminal was financed by the World Bank with a loan of over 100 million of dollars. On the occasion of yesterday's visit the Minister of the Sea, of transport and infrastructure of Zagreb, Oleg Butkovic, has specified that the planned investments by Maersk and ENNA will amount to €480 million by 2026 and highlighted whereas the new terminal, which will employ more than 300 people, will create more than 1,100 direct jobs in Croatia. In addition, the Minister stressed that, thanks to the digitization of customs procedures, it is expected that the Container customs clearance in Croatia will generate revenue tax amounted to 180 million euros in 2026 which will rise to 340 million euros in 2030.

On the occasion of the visit, Minister Butkovic recalled that Further capacity enhancement is being considered of container traffic of the port of Rijeka with the realization a third container terminal on the island of Krk which could enliven 3.5 million teu per year that is would add to the more than one million teu of capacity of the new Rijeka Gateway, APM/ENNA terminal which, having a depth of the seabed of about -20 meters, will be in able to accommodate the largest container ships in service. The project for the construction of a third terminal for containers has been relaunched repeatedly in recent times years, especially during commercial negotiations between Croatia and China, assuming investments, in particular by the group Chinese shipowner COSCO, for the realization of new infrastructure in Croatia including the new port terminal.