Bulgaria ports to build container terminals with Japanese loan

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

29 Aug 2008

The contract for a loan in the amount of EUR 230 M for the construction of new container terminals was signed Friday by Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski and representatives of the Japanese bank. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova The Bulgarian Cabinet officially received Friday the loan in the amount of EUR 230 M from the Japanese Bank for

International Development for the construction of new container terminals at the ports of Varna and Bourgas.
The contract was signed by the Bulgarian Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski and representatives of the Japanese bank.
The loan has a 25-year term and a 7-year grace period. This is the last international development loan to be received by Bulgaria, according to the representative of the Japanese bank.
According to the Bulgarian Transport Minister Petar Mutafchiev, the container terminals have a completion deadline of 2014 and will process 6 times more loads than the current capacity. In the mean time, data shows that the container loads have increased by 40% compared with the last year.
The Varna terminal will have to process in 2008 a total of 158,000 containers compared with 100,000 in 2007, according to the port's Director Dimitar Papazov. Papazov further said that the equipment of the "Varna-West" port was obsolete and did not provide enough capacity for the processing of all arriving containers, adding that about 1,200 heavy trucks pass through the port daily - a huge number as well.
The money from the Japanese bank will be used to purchase equipment for the new terminals to secure the effective processing of all loads.
The project will now go to the Parliament to be ratified.

Source: Novinite