3. FOCUS ON BULGARIA

• The focus of this chapter is on Bulgaria, the second largest Danube country behind Romania. Within its waterside cargo volumes, agricultural products enjoy the highest share. Together with iron ore, they represent almost half of all transport demand. In the first half year of 2024, transport demand saw an upward trend in Bulgaria.
• An important characteristic of inland waterway transport in Bulgaria is the high share of transit traffic (74% on average between 2014 and 2023) which is explained by the trading routes for agricultural products and iron ore on the Danube.
• The three largest inland ports in Bulgaria are Ruse, Silistra and Lom. The Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company (BPI Co.), in its capacity as the managing body of Bulgaria’s public transport ports, has been actively investing in the modernisation and maintenance of port infrastructure over recent years.

THE INLAND WATERWAY NETWORK IN BULGARIA

Sources: Yearbook statistics of the Danube Commission 2021-2022, Executive Agency “Maritime Administration” (EAMA)
* The ports on the map are the most important ports in Bulgaria, as mentioned in the Danube Commission yearbook of statistics.
For Lom, Oriahovo and Svishchov, data refer to 2021 (source: yearbook statistics). For Silistra, Vidin and Ruse, data refer to 2023 (source: EAMA).
The most important inland port in Bulgaria is the port of Ruse, with 1.6 million tonnes of transshiped goods in 2023.

 
• The Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company (BPI Co.), in its capacity as the managing body of Bulgaria’s public transport ports, has been actively investing in the modernisation and maintenance of port infrastructure over recent years. These efforts focus on improving operational efficiency, enhancing safety and ensuring sustainable growth for the Bulgarian ports along the Danube River.
• Looking ahead to the next 2-3 years, BPI Co. has outlined several major projects aimed at further developing port infrastructure and supporting economic growth. A significant planned investment is the building of a multimodal transport platform in the Port of Ruse. This project will significantly enhance cargo handling efficiency by improving connections between road, rail and river transport networks. It is expected to increase regional trade, reduce transit times and stimulate sustainable economic development.
• BPI Co. is also prioritising environmental sustainability with the building of shore power supply systems for ships in the ports of Ruse, Vidin and Lom. This initiative will allow docked vessels to connect to onshore electricity instead of using the engines, thereby reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

 

FIGURE 1: YEARLY TRANSPORT DEMAND ON INLAND WATERWAYS IN BULGARIA ACCORDING TO GOODS SEGMENTS (IN MILLION TONNES)


Source: Eurostat [iww_go_atygo]
* Figures for the year 2023

 
• In the year 2023, transport on inland waterways in Bulgaria amounted to 13.4 million tonnes. The main navigable river in Bulgaria is the Danube, which represents also the border with Romania. In Bulgarian inland waterway transport, agricultural products are the most important type of goods, with an average share of 40.0% in the time period from 2014 until 2023. Iron ores are the second most important goods with an average share of 13.1%. Coal, chemicals as well as sands, stones, gravel and construction material are ranked next. The high importance of agricultural products mirrors the importance of inland waterway grain transport in Romania, a neighbouring country of Bulgaria. Around three quarters of inland waterway transport in Bulgaria is represented by transit traffic. This can explain why the total cargo transshiped in Bulgarian ports (excluding ferry transport), which amounted to 3.4 million tonnes in 2023, is lower than total transport on Bulgarian waterways. Hence, the goods are transported between the Upper and Middle Danube on the one hand, and the Lower Danube on the other hand, hereby transiting through Bulgaria.

 

QUARTERLY DEVELOPMENT OF GOODS TRANSPORT IN BULGARIA

• Quarterly figures of transport demand in Bulgarian inland waterway transport show a recovery after a serious drop in Q3 2022. This decrease in Q3 2022 can largely be explained by bad harvest results in the Danube region in 2022. Indeed, in Danube countries – without Ukraine – the harvest result of the year 2022 was the lowest in the time period between 2014 and 2023: the harvest volume of cereals in 2022 amounted to 58.5 million tonnes, compared to an average volume of 72.1 million tonnes in the time period 2014-2023 (difference of 18.9%).¹⁴ Another reason for the bad results in Q3 2022 is the low water period in summer 2022. Even if water levels are less critical in the Lower Danube region, the cargo transport on the Lower Danube is impacted by low water levels on the Upper and Middle Danube due to the large volume of cargo transported downstream from the Middle to the Lower Danube.
• As the curve for the quarterly transport demand shows, a rather high degree of seasonality is present in the quarterly data for Bulgaria. This seasonality is due to the high share of agricultural products in Bulgarian IWT. The original series shows a peak in almost every third quarter of a year. The third quarter is the time period when grain is harvested and transported. The seasonally adjusted series smoothes out the peaks, thereby showing the trend and business cycle components of the transport demand series.

 

FIGURE 2: QUARTERLY TRANSPORT DEMAND ON INLAND WATERWAYS IN BULGARIA (IN MILLION TONNES), Q1 2014 TO Q2 2024


Sources: Eurostat [iww_go_qnave], CCNR analysis
 

• With an average share of 74% in the time period between 2014 and 2023, and the same share in 2023, transit traffic represents by far the most important type of transport in Bulgaria. Other types of transport, namely international (exports and imports) and national transport, are relatively low. Regarding the difference between transport in Bulgaria and in Romania, the Danube serves as a transit route for Bulgaria, while it serves as an import and export route for Romania.
• Within transit transport, the transport of agricultural products had a share of 41.0% in 2023. For the time period 2014-2023, the average share of agricultural products within transit traffic was 42.7%. Iron ore follows behind agricultural products with a share of 18.0%. The average share in the period between 2014 and 2023 was 17.1%, followed by chemicals (14.5% in 2023 and 11.8% in 2014-2023), and coal (9.0% in 2023; 6.8% in 2014-2023).¹⁵
• Another way to analyse the data is to calculate the share of transit traffic within agricultural products and iron ore transport. In 2023, the share of transit traffic within all agricultural products transported was 89.4% (80.9% in the time period 2014-2023). For iron ore transport, the share of transit transport is nearly 100% (99.9% in 2023 and 98.8% in the time period 2014 to 2023).
• Together with qualitative information on Danube shipping, the results of this data analysis show two important characteristics of Bulgarian inland waterway transport and of goods transport on the Danube in general:
  1) The downstream transit transport of agricultural products from Middle Danube countries (Croatia, Hungary, Serbia) towards the seaports in Romania (in particular to Constanţa), via the Bulgarian stretch of the Danube, plays an important role for Bulgarian IWT and for Danube shipping in general.¹⁶
  2) The upstream transit transport of iron ore on the Danube to Middle and Upper Danube countries (Serbia, Hungary and Austria), via the Bulgarian stretch of the Danube plays an important role for Bulgarian IWT and for Danube shipping in general.¹⁷

 

FIGURE 3: INLAND WATERWAY TRANSPORT IN BULGARIA ACCORDING TO TYPES OF TRANSPORT (IN MILLION TONNES)


Source: Eurostat [iww_go_atygo]
 
 

FACT SHEET IWT IN BULGARIA – ANNUAL FIGURES

ABSOLUTE VALUE FOR BULGARIA VS SHARE IN EU TOTAL



Sources: CCNR analysis based on Eurostat data [iww_go_atygo], [tran_hv_frmod], [sbs_sc_ovw], [iww_eq_loadcap], [iww_eq_age]
Data for transport demand, persons employed in IWT, fleet data, number of IWT freight transport companies and IWT turnover in freight transport are for 2023; modal split data, number of IWT passenger transport companies are for 2022.
Notes on the factsheet: #) in contrast with transport performance, a country-specific share cannot be calculated for transport volume. n.d. = no data
The modal split share is defined as the percentage of inland waterway freight transport performance (in TKM) within total land-based transport performance. Land-based freight transport modes include road, rail and inland waterways. The road freight activity is reported according to the territoriality principle, where international road freight transport data are redistributed according to the national territories of where the transport actually takes place. These principles are implemented in the Eurostat series [tran_hv_frmod].