Liberty Galati is modernizing its port to reduce the impact of the Black Sea blockade

Romania’s Liberty Galati, a subsidiary of the UK’s Liberty Steel, has announced that it is modernizing its Romportmet port to increase its capacity, SteelOrbis reports.

The purpose of the modernization is to reduce the impact of the Black Sea blockade due to the war in Ukraine.

The total cost of the project is 10.1 million Romanian lei ($2.22 million). It will be co-financed in the amount of 8.49 million lei ($1.86 million) from the Transport Program of the Romanian Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure for 2021-2027.

The modernization will include the purchase of new equipment designed to meet the highest environmental standards. It will be carried out from January to December 2024.

«As part of this project, the company will acquire a mobile wheeled crane and two front-end bucket loaders for loading, unloading and handling bulk cargo, mainly iron ore, metals and metal products, originating from or destined for Ukraine, which will allow additional operations with these products and other types of bulk cargo, excluding those involving fossil fuels», it is stated in Romportmet message.

Liberty Galati owns and operates the private river and sea port complex Romportmet, which is located on the left bank of the Danube. It has about 2.5 km of berths and several cranes and can handle a wide range of materials, including bulk cargo and finished steel products. Romportmet’s berths can receive and unload vessels of up to 7,000 dwt, as well as river barges. The port has a direct connection to Romania’s highway and railway network.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in early December 2022, Liberty Galati resumed operation of blast furnace No. 5 after 69 days of downtime, which had been suspended since September 30 this year. The main reasons for the shutdown at that time were severe weather conditions in the Black Sea and a sharp drop in the water level in the Danube. This affected the supply of sufficient raw materials for the safe operation of the unit.