“We have not built a single ship in three decades and ten have sunk in the last four years.”

Helsinki sign that Begej sails well Before Titel sank, the information came in a few days after a ship had been launched at the revitalized Begej shipyard in Zrenjanin, in fact a Reni tanker produced for the needs of the oil industry. It was then announced that the shipyard had built the largest ship to date, 135 meters long, 11.6 meters wide and 855 tons long, with a 2.2 million euro boiler, and that it would sail under the name Helsinki. Construction of the tanker was said to have been underway for ten months and 160 workers had been hired. It was good news, from which it could be concluded that shipbuilding in Banat has recovered after poor privatization, and that good business can be expected for the needs of domestic and foreign companies in the coming period.

The recent sinking of the self-propelled cargo ship Titel, loaded with clay in the basin of the Port of Belgrade, raised the question of the state of our ships, since 10 ships sank in our rivers in the last 4 years, so we are in the infamous first place in Europe.

Unfortunately, we pay little attention to shipbuilding and maritime transport as an economic branch, because ships are heard, as now, in the black chronicles, when unpleasant events occur, although our ports are second in terms of transshipment on the Danube, after from Romania, writes the portal Dnevnik.

“About a hundred ships now sail under the Serbian flag on rivers and canals. We have three active shipbuilders: in Mavanska Mitrovica, Zrenjanin and Kladovo, and almost 200 companies dealing with freight transport and river navigation, two of which are state-owned. These are the Yugoslav Reno Shipping Company and the “Ivan Milutinovi” in Belgrade. However, no shipyard builds ships for the needs of national transport because it is an expensive investment, behind which there must be important capital, “Vajda told the media.

He adds that the ship cannot be old, but correct and defective. There are ships that were built a hundred years ago and are still sailing because they get completely revitalized every ten to 15 years, which can also be an expensive investment.

According to him, no ship has been built in our shipyards for a long time, so the youngest we have from 1991 is considered the youngest.
“As we do not make new boats, we import them from the Netherlands or Germany, and the importers are several companies. But it does not matter who the owner or importer of the boat is, but how they are inspected for accuracy and given permission to be correct. it is the rivers precisely because the inspection is not done properly, it is easy to get a navigation permit and there is a lack of proper inspection control, ”warns Vajda.

According to the interlocutor from Dnevnik, shipbuilding and shipping are so advanced in our country that we have no young people at all, but we have staff employed on ships for two decades.

“We don’t even have enough inspectors, only six to control the regular traffic and the boats and one for the canals,” he said.

The remedy to get out of that situation, he says, is to renew the shipping industry with professional staff, increase the number of traffic inspectors for water transport and for the former Jugoregistar, and now the Directorate for the Determination of Navigability, to adopt a different approach. in security control and the issuance of navigation permits.

“It is necessary to review the entire system and, in cooperation with the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, the competent ministries and representatives of the profession, to find and eliminate the deficiencies,” concludes Branislav Vajda.