„Port of Constanța, strategic for Romania and Europe”, a new G4Media editorial project

The G4Media launches a new editorial project – „Port of Constanta, strategic for Romania and Europe”, which will reveal to readers the strategic stakes that the Port of Constanta occupies, but also the economic challenges it faces in its development and modernization, in the context of the special status it has acquired amid the war in Ukraine.

More specifically, after the outbreak of the war, Constanta took over the activity of Ukrainian ports and became a critical infrastructure for the whole region. This is how last year saw the absolute record in cargo traffic volume, with a total of over 75 million tonnes, up 12% on the previous year, at a total annual operating capacity of 100 million tonnes. Some 4,500 seagoing vessels called in and almost 11,000 river vessels.

Under the pressure of these new challenges, the Port of Constanta is facing systemic problems such as outdated rail infrastructure, which creates bottlenecks in the usual cargo handling operations, and reduced access to berths for companies interested in investing in the port. Although the largest port located on the Black Sea, the Port of Constanta ranks 16th in 2021 among European ports.

A mixed team of journalists from G4Media and Economedia publications, in partnership with Info Sud-Est, will publish over three months (July-September 2023), a series of articles, analyses, investigations, and interviews that aim to capture the economic and military stakes of the Port of Constanta and provide transparency of the whole activity, such as investments to be made by the Romanian state, as well as identifying the main actors (transport companies, port operators, infrastructure investors, and key decision makers).

These journalistic materials will follow the public tenders in infrastructure development, the appointments to senior positions in the port administration, as well as describing the main commercial and political players in the port.

The Port of Constanta covers a total area of 3,926 hectares, of which 1,313 hectares are land and 2,613 hectares water. It plays a major role in the European intermodal transport network, being located at the intersection of trade routes linking the markets of landlocked countries in Central and Eastern Europe with the Transcaucasus region, Central Asia and the Far East. Significant quantities of goods are transported between the Port of Constanta and the Central and Eastern European countries of Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Austria, Slovakia, and Germany.

• We invite readers to send us information they consider relevant about the Port of Constanta to the editorial office: [email protected]