The Maritime Ports Administration SA Constantza (MPAC) is the port authority for the Port of Constantza. The MPA is responsible for administering, maintaining, and modernizing the Port of Constantza infrastructure. It offers pilotage services, manages the shipyards and repairing companies, ship brokerage, bunkering, and port signaling. It also maintains depths in the Port of Constantza, abates and prevents pollution, handles dirty ballast, provides water and electricity, fights fires, and manages telecommunication services within the Port of Constantza.

The Port of Constantza is the largest port on the Black Sea, and it is capable of managing any type of cargo. It is connected by river, road, rail, and air to urban centers in Romania and Eastern Europe. Located at the crossroads of trade routes between Central and Eastern Europe to the Middle East and Central Asia, the Port of Constantza is in an excellent strategic position to remain a vital port for generations to come.

The navigation channel to the Port of Constantza is 6.4 nautical miles long, 0.8 nautical miles wide, and 21 meters deep. The port can accommodate vessels to 250 thousand DWT. Pilotage is required for all commercial vessels, including for berthing and unberthing. Tidal variations have little affect on the Port of Constantza. The Port of Constantza has three anchorage zones. Zones 1 and 2 accept vessels other than tankers to 40 GRT, and Zone 3 is for tankers and carriers of liquefied petroleum gas and/or dangerous cargoes.

In 2008, the Port of Constantza handled 61.8 million tons of cargo, including 29.6 million tons of dry bulk, 14.4 million tons of liquid bulk, 4.8 million tons of general cargo, and 13.0 million tons of containerized cargo (1.4 million TEUs). During 2008, almost 14 thousand vessels called at the Port of Constantza, including 5905 ocean-going vessels and 8018 river vessels. Of the total 61.8 million tons of cargo, 11.4 million tons was iron ore and scrap, 8.8 million tons was crude oil, 7.1 million tons was coal and coke, 6.7 million tons was cereals, 4.1 million tons was oil products, and 2.1 million tons was metal products. Other major cargoes included fertilizers, chemical products, oil seeds, oleaginous fruits and fats, cement, lime, wood, cork, and prefabricated construction materials.

With specialized pipelines for loading and unloading, the liquid bulk terminal at the Port of Constantza can accommodate tankers to 165 thousand DWT. the Port of Constantza has a terminal dedicated to the import of crude oil and oil products and the export of refined oil products, derivatives, and chemical products. Pipelines are available to carry liquid bulk cargoes into river vessels that link the Port of Constantza to other European destinations or the Romanian hinterland, including the country’s major refineries.

The Port of Constantza’s dry bulk terminals are one of Europe’s busiest bulk centers. Dry bulk cargoes like iron, non-ferrous ore, grains, coal, and coke are supported by specialized terminals located adjacent to the river-maritime basin. They can support both maritime and river vessels, providing direct transshipment on barges. Other dry bulk cargoes passing through the Port of Constantza are cement, construction materials, and phosphate, among others.

The Port of Constantza has two specialized terminals handling iron ore, coal, bauxite, and coke. These terminals contain 13 berths with alongside depths up to 19 meters and can unload more than 45 thousand tons per day from maritime vessels and load barges at a rate of two thousand tons per hour. These terminals have storage capacity for 4.7 million tons at one time, and capacity to handle more than 27 million tons of dry bulk cargoes per year. They can accommodate vessels to 250 thousand DWT.

The Port of Constantza also has specialized terminals for handling fertilizers, urea, phosphate, apatite, and other chemical products. With 10 berths with alongside depth up to 13.5 meters, the terminals have storage capacity for 100 thousand tons and can handle a total of 4.2 million tons per year. Operation capacity for phosphates is 30 thousand tons. The terminals can accommodate vessels to 30 thousand DWT.

As a trading partner with the high-producing agricultural countries in Eastern and Central Europe, the Port of Constantza moves large volumes of agricultural products and agri-bulk to destinations around the world. Several facilities dedicated to handling and storing dry cereals are in the Port of Constantza. They contain 14 specialized berths with alongside depths from 7 to 13 meters. The terminals can accommodate both river and Panamax maritime vessels, and they offer storage facilities (silos and warehouses) with total storage capacity of 350 thousand tons. There is also sea-buoy service to large-capacity maritime vessels with 16 meters depth where cargoes can be directly transferred to river vessels.

The Port of Constantza has a specialized terminal for chemical products and fertilizers that contains 10 berths with depths to 13.5 meters. They include storage capacity for 100 thousand tons and capacity to handle 4.2 million tons of dry bulk and general cargoes per year. The terminal can accommodate vessels to 30 thousand DWT and has operation capacity for 30 thousand tons of phosphates.

The Port of Constantza operates four container terminals that have experienced constant and steady growth in cargo volume. A new container terminal recently opened in the Port of Constantza’s Port-Pier IIS that can accommodate post-Panamax container ships. The new terminal can handle 325 thousand TEUs per year, and it will handle up to one million TEUs in the future.

The Port of Constantza has two roll-on/roll-off terminals that handle vehicles and other ro-ro cargoes. The Port of Constantza exports Romanian vehicles to Brazil, Turkey, China, and Columbia from two specialized link-span berths. The Roll-on/Roll-off Terminal in the north area of the Port of Constantza has a berth of 364 meters with alongside depth of 13 meters, and it has parking space for 4800 vehicles. The Roll-on/Roll-off Terminal at the south area of the Port of Constantza has a 214-meter-long berth with alongside depth of 13.2 meters and parking space for 1800 vehicles.

SNTFM CFR Marfa operates the ferry boat terminal with outstanding facilities for freight in wagons, containers, and trucks. The terminal has five railway tracks and equipment suitable for handling the normal European railway standard.

The Port of Constantza also has a terminal for non-propelled barges that travel the Danube-Black Sea canal. This traffic is expected to reach 17 million tons by the year 2010. The new terminal will allow river barges to moor in southern Constantza, with new mooring fronts for non-propelled barges, lighters, and river tugs and new mooring capacity for about 10 million tons of cargo per year. The terminal has 1200 meters of quay with alongside depth of 7 meters. The quay for river tugs is 300 meters long with alongside depth of 5 meters.

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