AFTER TRAFFIC DROPPED BY HALF,  The Administration of the Maritime Danube Gala i (APDM) cut harbor fees by half

Marilena DINU,

GalaŢi

The Administration of the Maritime Danube Gala i (APDM) decided to cut port fees by half after traffic in the ports of Galaţi, Brăila and Tulcea shrunk 50% below the numbers estimated for 2009. The announcement was made by Mihai Ochialbescu, director of APDM Galaţi, who said that the first two months of 2009 were extremely bad, but March brought with it a slight increase in traffic, but still the turnover was just a little above half of last year"s traffic for March.

"We are seeing a drastic traffic decrease. This year"s first quarter traffic volume was 1.2 million tons, compared to our 3 million tons estimate, spread across the ports of Brăila, Galaţi and Tulcea", Mihai Ochialbescu said. He explained that out of those 1.2 million tons, 900000 were carried by river ships, and 312000 tons by maritime ships. Mihai Ochialbescu said that only 645 ships (98 maritime ships and 547 river ships) transited through the ports of Galaţi, Brăila and Tulcea during the first three months of 2009, far below the estimated 1750 ships.

"A positive thing is that traffic increased in March, 280 ships out of the total of 645 that went through in Q1, did so in March. Tonnage wise, traffic in March was 560000 tons, below the estimated 1 million tons", director of the APDM said.

Given these circumstances, the Maritime Danube Ports Administration (APDM) decided to cut fees for maritime ships carrying containers by half. Mihai Ochialbescu stated: "The only terminal on the Danube is the one in Galaţi. In agreement with the port operator who built the terminal and with the River Administration of the Lower Danube, we have decided to cut 50% off the docking fees and the transit fee for the Sulina channel for ships carrying containers. In doing this, we hope to attract ships carrying containers to the port of Gala i, where this type of ship hasn"t docked in more than a year. Right now, all ships carrying containers dock in the Port of Constan a. We hope that these discounts will help funnel some of this traffic to the port of Gala i ". Mr. Ochialbescu said that right now, the fee per container is 56 lei in Constanţa, as opposed to 112 lei in Galaţi