Luka Koper names Dimitrij Zadel new chairman

On 29 December, the supervisory board of the port operator Luka Koper relieved Dragomir Matić of the position of chairman of the board of directors and Irena Vincek and Andraž Novak as members of the management board, as emerges from an announcement by the board of directors on the port’s homepage. The Supervisory Board has appointed Dimitrij Zadel as Chairman of the Board, Irma Gubanec, former Managing Director of newspaper publisher Delo, Member of the Board of Management for Finance and Accounting and Metod Podkrižnik, Head of Logistics Company Fersped, as Member of the Board. All three took up their five-year mandate on December 29, 2017. In addition, the Supervisory Board has appointed Uros Ilić as Chairman of the Supervisory Board and Andraž Lipolt as Vice Chairman.

Speaking after the session, the new chairman of the supervisory board, the lawyer Uroš Ilić said the for cause dismissal had been prompted by the no-confidence vote given to the Dragomir Matić management at Thursday’s shareholders’ meeting as well as by the management’s grave misconduct and incapacity to manage business. He would not give much further details.

The supervisory board called a vote of no confidence after an audit found problems in the hiring of dock workers through outsourcing companies. These workers are paid less and work under worse terms than those employed directly by Luka Koper. The outsourcing model has been in use at the port for 20 years, but the audit established that the Luka Koper management had no strategic grip on the outsourcing and that the model entailed labour legislation violation and corruption risks.

Just a few days before entering the New Year, Port of Koper in Slovenia again reached record levels at the Container Terminal. They handled 900,000 TEU in 2017 thus exceeding the last year’s level by 100,000 units. Positive trends were registered already during the year – in May they set a monthly container handling record which was by 14% above the level registered in the same month last year.

“This record result was undoubtedly helped by some key investments, especially in equipment that allowed Luka Koper to improve the terminal’s productivity. At the beginning of the year, we switched to a new wagon loading system with the support of the so-called RMG technology. We purchased three new RMG cranes which enable faster simultaneous manipulation of five train compositions. In May, we acquired two new Super-Post-Panamax (SPPX) container cranes allowing manipulation of the largest container vessels with a capacity of 20,000 TEU. Throughout the year, we set up new surfaces and up-graded the existing surfaces with the goal of improving internal logistics,” Port of Koper announces.

Recently, the port operator also completed the setting-up of a depot to store empty containers and perform all services related to them. They provided for containers washing- and repair services, set up galleries and devices for reefer containers testing (i.e. pre-trip inspection) and built a new transformer station.

Port of Koper anticipates a favorable trend in the number of transhipped containers also in the coming years. They plan to increase the capacity of the Container Terminal to 1.3 million TEUs/year by 2020. For this purpose, the quayside of Pier I will have to be extended by an additional 100 meters and hinterland storage surfaces will have to be set-up.

www.luka-kp.si; www.sloveniatimes.com