Romania

Geographical location

Romania is located in the geographic centre of Europe. It neighbours to the North on Ukraine, to the East on the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, and the Black Sea, to the South on Bulgaria, to the South-West on Serbia, and to the West on Hungary. It stretches over 238,391 sq km, which ranks it 12th in Europe.

The administrative organization of Romania features 41 counties, and Bucharest, the capital city. In the counties, the basic administrative units are the towns and communes (made of several villages).

Location of the country on the international transport routes

The Orient/East-Med Corridor connects the German ports Bremen, Hamburg and Rostock via Czech Republic and Slovakia, with a branch through  Austria,  further via Hungary to the Romanian port of Constanta, the Bulgarian port of Burgas, with a link to Turkey, to Greec ports Thessaloniki and Piraeus and a “Motorway of the Sea” link to Cyprus. It comprises rail, road, airports, ports, RRT’s and the Elbe river inland waterway. The main bottle neck is the railway section Timisoara – Sofia.

The Rhine-Danube Corridor, connects Strasbourg and Mannheim via two parallel axes in southern Germany, one along Main and Danube, the other one via Stuttgart and Munich, and with a branch to Prague and Zilina to the Slovak-Ukrainian border , through Austria, Slovakia and Hungary to the Romanian  ports of Constanta and Galati. It covers rail, road,  airports, ports,  RRT’s  and the inland waterway system of Main, Main-Danube Canal, the entire Danube downstream of Kelheim and the Sava river. The key projects are removing the bottlenecks along the inland waterways and the railway sections Stuttgart – Ulm and München – Freilassing.

Romania may play a leading role in connecting Central Asia and Central Europe through the Danube river and the Port of Constanta, which sum up an excellent transport system. Improvements of the infrastructure of both maritime and inland waterway would add benefits for the entire economy of Romania in an European context. Infrastructure projects focused especially on TEN-T ports (Primary Economic Network) are under preparation.

Main sea-ports

The Port of Constanța is located in Constanța, Romania, on the western coast of the Black Sea, 179 nautical miles (332 km) from the Bosphorus Strait and 85 nmi (157 km) from the Sulina Branch, through which the Danube river flows into the sea. It covers 3,926 ha (9,700 acres) of which 1,313 ha (3,240 acres) is land and the rest, 2,613 ha (6,460 acres), is water. The two breakwaters located northwards and southwards shelter the port, creating the safest conditions for port activities. The present length of the north breakwater is 8.344 km (27,380 ft) and the south breakwater is 5.560 km (18,240 ft). The Port of Constanța is the second largest on the Black Sea and the 18th largest in Europe.

The favourable geographical position and the importance of the Port of Constanța is emphasized by the connection with two Pan-European transport corridors: Corridor VII – Danube (inland waterway) and Corridor IV (railway). The two satellite ports, Midia and Mangalia, located not far from Constanța Port, are part of the Romanian maritime port system under the coordination of the Maritime Ports Administration SA.

The Port of Mangalia is situated on the Black Sea, close to the southern border with Bulgaria, and over 260 km north of Istanbul. It covers 142.19 ha of which 27.47 ha is land and 114.72 ha is water.

The north and south breakwaters have a total length of 2.74 km. There are 4 berths (2 operational berths) with a total length of 540 m. The max. depth is 9 m.

The Port of Mangalia is mainly used by the Constanța Shipyard.

The Port of Midia is located on the Black Sea coastline, approx 13.5 NM north of Constanţa.

It is one of the satellite ports of Constanța and was designed and built to serve the adjacent industrial and petrochemical facilities.

The north and south breakwaters have a total length of 6,97 km. The port covers 834 ha of which 234 ha is land and 600 ha is water. There are 14 berths (11 operational berths, 3 berths belong to the Constanța Shipyard) with a total length of 2,24 km.

Further to dredging operations performed the port depths are increased to 9 m at crude oil discharging berths 1-4, allowing access to tankers having an 8.5 m maximum draught and 20,000 DWT.

The Port of Midia is mainly used for the supply of crude oil for the nearby Petromidia Refinery.

The Port of Sulina is situated on the Black Sea, close to the northern border with Ukraine, and it is the last city through which the Danube flows before entering the Black Sea. The port has a quay length of 5,940 m (19,490 ft) and depths between 2.5 m (8.2 ft) and 7.5 m (25 ft).

The Port of Sulina is mainly used by the Sulina Shipyard.

Inland navigation system

The inland waterway transport, focused on the Danube river (1075 km along Romania) , is provided through 29 inland waterway ports, the largest being the ports of Galati, Braila and Tulcea, located on the maritime section of the Danube. They are part of the TEN-T Network and  a series of ports on the river Danube, the largest of which are Giurgiu, Oltenita, and Droberta Turnu Severin.

The navigable canals have been developed between the Danube and the Black Sea, including the main canal, Danube-Black Sea Canal which ends in Constanta Sea Port, and  Poarta  Alba-Midia 20 Navodari Canal which links the main canal with the Midia Port.

The Danube-Black Sea Canal offers access to both the Black Sea and the North Sea through the Rhine-Main Danube Trans European Waterway, connecting the  Port  of  Constant a and  the  Port  of  Rotterdam. A third canal is Bega Canal and traverses Romania and Serbia, discharging through Tisa in the Danube River.

Ministry of Transport of Romania