Macedonia Mulls Sea Trading Fleet

A Ministry of Transport official told Balkan Insight the country is looking for a consultant to study how much profit it could make from operating trading vessels under its flag.

“The consultant firm should have experience in maritime affairs and will also prepare a draft law to tackle this problem,” a Transport Ministry official told Balkan Insight.

Officials want Macedonia to join several other landlocked countries, which despite not having sea ports of their own, operate considerable fleets of trading ships.

Zoran Arizanovski from the Macedonian Association of Shipping Companies told the Vreme daily newspaper: “The state has neither experts nor experience in this field, but that does not mean that the idea is farfetched."

He said the state needed to consult similar landlocked states, such as Switzerland, which were very experienced in running sea fleets.

Macedonia’s flagship metal industry, which largely uses boat transport for its needs, could potentially be the biggest client of the future trading fleet, observers say.

Aleksandar Panov, the head of the company Maksteel, told the Vreme daily newspaper: “If a home fleet offers better prices to companies who currently use foreign vessels, I see no reason why they should not switch to its services.”

Macedonian experts and businessmen have said the move could be very profitable, but cautioned over the high cost of the whole project and lack of experience were danger areas.

The Macedonian government first mooted the establishment of a trading fleet in February last year in a bid to boost state profits.

Officials said they envisaged 10 ships to begin with, which could be formed as a public-private partnership or as an entirely state owned business.

Four ports are believed to be potential home ports to the fleet - Durres in Albania, Thessaloniki in Greece, Bar in Montenegro and Burgas in Bulgaria.

Macedonia has a direct highway connection only to the port in Thessaloniki, which already serves as the main supply and export route for the country.

But any negotiations are expected to be complicated by Greece's refusal to recognise Macedonia's official name, which it shares with Greece's northernmost province, and which has led to Athen's blocking Macedonia's attempts to join the EU and NATO could complicate things.