Koper - Port operator Luka Koper said on Thursday that the arrival of the operator of the Hamburg port to neighbouring Trieste and the interest of major logistics players in the Rijeka port was a recognition of the increasing importance of the southern transport route through the Adriatic, but did not present a serious threat to Koper's strategic status.

Luka Koper, which stressed Slovenia's sole commercial port has much bigger capacity for inland expansion than the neighbouring rival ports in Italy in Croatia, argued it was "in the interest of all ports in the region that we increase our capabilities and strengthen our competitiveness in relation to the ports in Northern Europe".

The company believes that Hamburg's HHLA taking over a majority stake in a multi-purpose terminal in Trieste will probably increase the choice of service there, but it does not see this as a critical threat to the strategic position of the state-controlled Koper port.

The same goes for reports about foreign investor interest in the new container terminal in Rijeka, with Luka Koper arguing that the granting of an operating licence in the Rijeka port would lead to two operators of container terminals competing against each other there.

Moreover, just like the two neighbouring ports, the Koper port has its zoning plan, which envisages an increase in capacities with the construction of port infrastructure, Luka Koper added, stressing the Koper port had much more room to expand inland.

Highlighting the importance of the ongoing construction of a new rail track to Koper, the company said that if the port also gets a modern and capable rail connection to the interior by the middle of the decade as planned, it will remain competitive.

"Thus the competition among the ports is taking place on the railways now," Luka Koper wrote, warning against the existing rail link turning into a bottleneck.