In an unprecedented illegal action staff members of rival stevedoring companies lead by their management occupied the terminal of EMS APO in the port of Durres/Albania on Tuesday, June 16. They were assisted by the director of the state owned Durres Port Authority.

As a consequence of the occupation all operations of the German owned terminal operator EMS APO had to be stopped. This is the climax of a campaign that lasts already for months in which the Durres Port Authority with the assistance of the Ministry of Transportation is trying to squeeze EMS APO out of the business. EMS APO signed a leasing and operating contract with the Albanian state in 2013 for the East Terminal of the port of Durres.

The terminal is mainly used for import and export of bulk cargo such as chrome, clinker and coal, but also for any other kind of cargo like break bulk, general cargo and project cargo. EMS APO, which is part of the German EMS-Fehn-Group, already invested five million Euro into the infrastructure of the terminal. Over the last few months the director of the Durres Port Authority ordered EMS APO several times to stop all stevedoring activities and the stuffing of chrome into containers.

At the same time the Durres Port Authority initiated numerous actions against EMS APO. Only a week ago Durres Port Authority (DPA) stopped the discharging of a train. DPA then
ordered the vessel to re-berth to a terminal which is under the control of DPA.

The latest attempt happened on Tuesday, June 16, during loading operations on the East Terminal. While EMS APO was loading chrome ore onto a vessel, 50 to 60 staff members of three rival companies, lead by their management, entered the terminal and climbed the ore piles which forced the crane operators of EMS APO to stop loading. At the same time wheel loaders and fork lifts were positioned around the chrome piles. The director of the port was also actively involved and presented EMS APO a letter in which he demanded an immediate shut down of operations. EMS APO called the police and asked them to remove all unauthorized people from the terminal, but they refused by saying they were not responsible.

In order to avoid any injuries and to de-escalate the situation the management of EMS APO
decided to stop the loading process. EMS APO’s attempts to restart loading later in the day were all stopped by renewed occupations. Yesterday (Wednesday, June 17) state authorities continued their unlawful line of action and ordered the port security guards to close the gates to the EMS APO terminal.

„This is a blatant attempt to exterminate a company that painfully follows all Albanian laws,
pays all rents and taxes on time and to the last penny“, says Manfred Müller, Managing Director of EMS APO and CEO of EMS-Fehn-Group. „There is not a single complaint by our
customers and our staff is happy to work for EMS APO. In short: We did nothing wrong -
except of not paying any bribes. For us these incidents show that the Albanian administration is not at all willing to fight corruption. We will take legal actions against DPA and the Ministry of Transportation. If Albanian courts do not protect binding contracts this will be a clear signal to all foreign companies that foreign investments in Albania are not save.“

EMS Albanian Port Operator Shpk is part of EMS-Fehn-Group which consists of 17 companies with offices in Leer, Bremen, Hamburg, Papenburg, Dortmund, Lübeck, Helsinki, Riga, Bolzano, Genoa, Palermo, Durres, Skopje and Ft. Lauderdale with about 220 staff members ashore and 220 on board. EMS-Fehn-Group is active in chartering, logistics, world-wide yacht transport, ship management (currently 20 vessels), heavy lift transports, stevedoring, terminal operation, warehousing, intra-logistics and crewing.
Source: EMS Albanian Port Operator Shpk