Plans and development

During the Homeland War, the Port of Vukovar (Luka-Vukovar d.o.o.) suffered great destruction and damage, and for that reason  it was not ready for public transport immediately after the peaceful reintegration of this area into the legal and economic order of the Republic of Croatia.

In that period (1997-2000), large investments, primarily the repair of damages, were made directly by the state through the then Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Communications. It is estimated that the total amount of investments was around EUR 5.5 million. However, after the rehabilitation of basic infrastructure and suprastructural facilities, it was realized that the competitiveness of the Port of Vukovar (Luka-Vukovar d.o.o.) as always the leading river port in Croatia (and formerly the former SFRY), in international terms will not be possible within the existing warehouse capacity. An interesting phenomenon occurred during the absence of our company from the market. The share of general cargo in the total transshipment has significantly increased, and today in the Port of Vukovar (Luka-Vukovar d.o.o.) larger quantities of general cargo are transshipped than during the 80s of the last century, when there were record years. Unfortunately, as the port was a preferential port of the northern, industrially developed parts of neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the area was extremely badly damaged during the war in that country, for these reasons, there is a lack of large quantities of coal, coke and steel that once each year brought up to million tons transshipped. By identifying problematic bottlenecks in the Port of Vukovar (Luka-Vukovar d.o.o.), primarily closed warehouse, expanding the area of ​​the Port of Vukovar (Port of Vukovar) and possibly relocating certain terminals to other possible locations, this problem would be completely solved.

So far, it is certain that such a plan would include terminals for transshipment of fertilizers, terminal for transshipment of other bulk cargo (iron ore, coal, coke, bauxite, etc.) with two additional portal cranes with a capacity of 16-32 t was installed in October 2007). Then, the construction of a new closed warehouse for general, but also bulk hygroscopic cargoes and a container terminal.

In addition, the influence of the future Danube-Sava canal (from Vukovar to Slavonski Šamac in the length of approximately 65 km) must be taken into account. Although this canal has been talked about and planned as a multi-purpose system (river traffic, irrigation and drainage and some other functions) since the end of the 18th century, it seems that construction will start in this decade. The projected route of the canal partly touches the existing port infrastructure. However, this channel will have an extremely negative impact on the types and quantities of goods that will appear in the Port of Vukovar (Luka-Vukovar d.o.o.) after its opening.

Our opinion is that the canal will certainly not contribute to the development of inland navigation in Croatia and especially the development of the Port of Vukovar (Luka-Vukovar d.o.o.), moreover, it will contribute to the development of individual ports on the Sava and thus directly endanger the national interests of the Republic of Croatia.