The workshop brought together representatives of the shipping industry from Hungary, Serbia, Austria, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Germany and Croatia with the objective to improve the dialogue between the navigation sector and the Danube Commission under the newly elected General Secretariat. PDI participated in the workshop in order to raise the awareness of the Danube Commission for the severe navigation problems on the Danube.
In his presentation which was titled: “Guaranteed standards for waterway maintenance, Pre-condition for safe and cost-effective Danube navigation”, Mr Capatu explained the economic impact of neglected fairway maintenance and asked the new General Secretariat for concrete and tangible actions in the framework of the Commission´s work. He explicitly referred to Art. 4 of the Danube Convention which empowers the Danube Commission to act in case of failure of maintenance work under national responsibility.
In addition, Mr Seitz delivered a presentation on the EU TEN T co-financed LNG Masterplan for Rhine-Main-Danube and outlined the perspectives of LNG as vessel fuel and as a cargo on the Danube. In a follow-up meeting on executive level, the General Secretariat of the DC and PDI agreed on a closer co-operation in the future in order to achieve the common goal of infrastructure improvements.
As of September 2013, four new members joined the PDI network: SC Navrom Delta SA, Navmar Shipping Co. Ltd., Felbermayr Holding GmbH and SC SOCEP SA Constanta. All four new members can boast a long tradition in working on the Danube.
SC Navrom Delta SA is the first PDI member that is also dealing with passenger transport. The company was founded in 1999 and provides passenger and goods transport in the Danube Delta and Tulcea Municipality.
Under the motto “We don’t work for tomorrow. We create it.” Navmar Shipping Co. Ltd. provides shipping, offshore and industrial services, transport and logistics as well as corporate services since 2003. One other main field of commercial activity of Navmar is to provide tailor-made crewing and crew management services according to international ISO standards.
Founded in 1942, Felbermayr Holding GmbH is the lead company for 21 operative subsidiaries which work in the field of logistics and transport, lifting technology as well as construction and civil engineering. Within the field of transport, the basis for the company's strength lays in the integration of all three transport modes: road, rail and water. Continuously growing and expanding, the company is one of the most significant international players.
SC SOCEP SA is a leading Constanta Port operator, owning a container and general cargo terminals in the Port of Constanta. Founded in 1991, SOCEP continuously improved its cargo handling services with containers, dry and break bulk cargo being the core of its operations.
In July 2013 the PDI network has grown by two new members, namely Rhenus AG & Co. KG and Trading Line LTD.
With 24 000 employees at 350 locations in the world and an annual turnover of about 4 bn. EUR,
Rhenus AG & Co KG is one of the leading logistics services provided in business areas such as contract logistics, freight logistics, port logistics and public transport, all in connection to management of complex supply chains and innovative value added services.
Trading Line LTD is a Romanian river transportation company based in the Port of Constanta and provides river transport services of break-bulk cargo (grain, steel, minerals etc.) as well as project cargo along the Danube.
PDI’s initiative proposal for an LNG Masterplan for the Rhine-Main-Danube, which was submitted within the TEN-T Programme was suggested by the EC for funding and adopted by the Member States Committee on the 11th of July 2013. This is great success for the LNG Masterplan Project Partners, taking into consideration that the competition was considerable and only less than a quarter of the requested funding was approved.
The project however suffered a budget reduction with regard to pilot deployments whose implementation was considered to be time-critical for the overall project implementation. This will require that the project budget is renegotiated with the relevant project partners, which have been already initiated by PDI and the Port of Rotterdam as Project Coordinators. The final contractual procedures which include the council decision are expected to be closed in November/December this year.
The LNG project was also selected to be presented on the
TEN-T Days 2013: Connecting Europe – On the move to the new TEN-T in Tallinn (15-18 October), which is the major political event for EU transport infrastructure policy. Right after this political launch of the project the practical implementation of the project will kick-off.
The LNG Masterplan project shall prepare the framework for the use of LNG as fuel and as a cargo on the Rhine-Main-Danube axis and will lead to the deployment of several LNG fuelled vessels and bunker facilities. This will be the first step into a full scale use of LNG as environmentally friendly and cost-effective fuel for inland navigation. The project also represents an example of how public and private funding can be combined to implement sustainable projects of common interest.
