CONTAINERS AND THEIR EFFECT IN DURRES PORT

Since the introduction of containerization, container throughput in the world has continuously increased. Today more than 90% of the world cargoes are transported by sea, and containerized cargoes are increasing year after year. The above tendency of world container transportation has given a significant impact on Albanian ports as well and especially in the port of Durres. Durres port is the main gateway of Albania, where more than 85% of the seaborne cargoes go through this port. During the recent years, the volume of general cargo that has been handled in this port has been gradually reduced and instead, a continuous and rapid growth of containerized cargoes has been observed. In order to have an effective and productive terminal, a number of factors need to be studied, because the higher the terminal productivity, the higher the difference between the revenues and the costs will be. There are a number of factors to be considered like port congestion, traffic management and safety aspects in the terminal. This paper gives an overall picture of various operations in Durres port containers terminal. Since this port is very new in containers handling operations, and the container traffic forecast is optimistic, there are a number of issues to be addressed in order to make the Port of Durres an adequate port, able to handle the containerized cargo in the future as well as to be a competitive port in the region. Development of the container terminal, improvement of port facility and port performance, application of technology and information systems, increasing the quality of services are key factors for developing the Durres port container terminal on severe regional container port competition.