The freight volume processed by Port Varna, one of Bulgaria’s two major Black Sea ports, grew by 12% in 2010, year-on-year.

According to data announced by Danail Papazov, CEO of Port Varna, the port handled a total of 8 million metric tons of goods and cargoes in 2010; in 2009, it processed only 6.7 million metric tons of goods.

It completed 2010 with a net profit of BGN 4 M, almost triple the 2009 profit.

Papazov emphasized the fact that Port Varna invested BGN 3 M in its facilities in 2010, and plans to invested another BGN 3-5 M in facilities and equipment in 2011.

According to Papazov, the factories located in the town of Devnya – a major industrial area with chemical and cement plants located right off Port Varna-West – have returned to the amounts of freight they processed through the port before the economic crisis kicked in in 2008.

A total of 1.5 metric tons of grain were exported through the Varna Port in 2010.

Bulgaria’s Port Varna is facing an increasing competition; for example, in the fall of 2009, Greece’s Thessaloniki Port (with a total freight traffic of 14.4 metric tons in 2009) invited Bulgarian companies to use its facilities.