The contractor Kolektor Koling and its partners Adriaing and Grafist have outbid CGP, the company Ekorel with partner Map-Trade, and China Communications Construction Company.

Luka Koper published the public procurement for the project last July, and the bidders had until the end of last September to place their bids.

Ekorel and China Communications Construction Company were the first to be eliminated, and the port operator entered talks with the remaining two at the beginning of the year.

CGP stuck to the original value of its bid of EUR 51.85 million, while Kolektor Koling reduced its bid from EUR 49.05 million to 45.66 million.

Luka Koper assessed that the price of the former exceeds the funds reserved for the project, and assessed the latter as appropriate, shows a report published on the public procurement portal on Friday.

Extension of pier 1 at Slovenia's sole maritime port is a major infrastructural project for Luka Koper, which has been in the works for quite a while.

The extension, which is expected to increase the capacity of container terminals to at least 1.5 million units a year, will be 98.5 metres long and 34.4 metres wide, increasing the length of the southern side of the pier to 695 metres.

In addition to investments in infrastructure, Luka Koper will also purchase new cranes, machines and other equipment. Out of EUR 235 million, which the entire investment is valued at, EUR 6 million will come from the Connecting Europe Facility.