Bulgaria's Port of Varna gets new grain terminal

The new grain terminal is part of a 25 million euro ($26.3 million) investment project between Port of Varna and Grain Terminal Varna West, the port operator said in a press release last week. Grain Terminal Varna West is a subsidiary of local privately-owned fertiliser producer and grain trader Agropolychim.

New equipment will be delivered and put into operation within 12 months, allowing the 24-hour ship-loading capacity to be doubled to over 20,000 t of grain, the port operator said. Currently, the processing equipment allows load rates of 450 t per hour or a little over 10,000 t per day.

The terminal's expanded capabilities will allow the simultaneous handling of several grain vessels to ensure a total export capacity of over 35,000 t per day. The grain storage capacity which has been developed to date amounts to 100,000 t.

Port of Varna operates two terminals. Varna East, which is close to the city and has 14 berths, while Varna West, with 22 berths and located some 30 km west of the city on the western shore of Beloslav Lake, close to the chemical factories of Devnya where Agropolychim is based.

($ = 0.9488 euro)