by Lloyd's List

RIJEKA Gateway welcomed its first commercial vessel after officially opening last week.

The arrival of the 2016-built, 14,500 teu Al Jasrah (IMO: 9732321) came after months of trial operations during the summer and officially started the terminal’s operational phase.

The joint venture between Maersk’s APM Terminals and ENNA Group invested €380m ($445m), which according to APMT makes it the largest logistics investment in Croatian history.

The terminal initially includes a quay of 400 metre, a draught of 20 m, and an annual capacity of 650,000 teu. The quay was financed by a World Bank loan.

After the planned expansion the quay will grow to 680 m and the annual capacity is poised to reach 1m teu.

Rijeka Gateway is the first terminal of its kind in the Adriatic region, with full automation and renewable energy used for the operations, and is included in Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd’s Gemini Cooperation.

Al Jasrah, the first vessel to arrive in Rijeka, came from Port Said, Egypt, as part of the Asia-Europe route.

Officials gathered to welcome Al Jasrah, including Croatian sea and transport minister Oleg Butković, who called the final stages of the project “demanding”.

Rijeka Gateway chief executive Peter Corfitsen said the terminal was more than just infrastructure, but it was a “symbol of Rijeka as a modern, sustainable and technologically advanced port”.

Corfitsen said the APMT must prove that everything it built could function daily “at the highest level of operational excellence” in the operational phase.

He said that once it reached the capacity of 1m teu annually, “the terminal will open a new chapter in the development of Rijeka’s transport sector and Croatia’s economy”.