Romania Allocates Funds for the Acquisition of Giurgiulesti Port: New Risks for Ukraine’s Danube Ports

The Romanian government has approved additional budget financing for the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure for 2026 in the amount of RON 281.626 million from the Budget Reserve Fund. The funds will be used to increase the share capital of the National Company Constanța Maritime Ports Administration S.A. in order to fully finance the transaction for the acquisition of 100% of the shares of ICS Danube Logistics SRL, the company managing the infrastructure of the Giurgiulesti International Free Port.

As a result, the Romanian state will effectively gain control over a key port asset of the Republic of Moldova through the purchase of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s stake in the port operator. According to the Romanian authorities, all the necessary state-level and corporate approvals have already been obtained.

Romanian Minister of Transport Ciprian Șerban emphasized that this decision is of strategic importance not only for Romania, but for the entire Black Sea region. According to him, after the completion of the transaction, Giurgiulesti, as Moldova’s only sea-river port, will be integrated into a common logistics concept with the Port of Constanța. This is expected to strengthen the Danube–Black Sea corridor and create a stronger regional platform for trade, transit, and investment.

The Giurgiulesti International Free Port plays a key role in Moldova’s foreign trade, handling more than 70% of the country’s seaborne trade. Its location in the lower Danube area, close to the borders with Romania and Ukraine, together with its oil products, grain, and general cargo terminals, makes it an important hub in regional logistics.

Comment by the Institute of Danube Research

The acquisition of Giurgiulesti Port by a Romanian state-controlled structure should be viewed not merely as a corporate transaction, but as part of Romania’s long-term geo-economic strategy in the Lower Danube region.

At the same time, as IDR experts have repeatedly noted, for Ukraine — and especially for the Danube ports of Odesa region — this deal creates not new opportunities, but a set of serious challenges. If Giurgiulesti Port comes under the effective control of the Romanian state, this will further concentrate logistical, tariff, and infrastructure leverage within the Romanian transport framework — from Constanța to the mouth of the Danube. This will increase competitive pressure on the Ukrainian ports of Reni, Izmail, and Ust-Dunaisk, which are already operating under the difficult conditions of war, security restrictions, unstable depths, and high logistics costs.

The infrastructure implications may be particularly sensitive. The integration of Giurgiulesti and Constanța into a single managed system could allow Romania to coordinate cargo flows more efficiently, develop feeder infrastructure, offer more attractive package conditions for operators, and redirect part of the transit traffic that might otherwise pass through Ukraine’s Danube infrastructure. As a result, Ukrainian ports risk losing not only part of their current cargo base, but also, more importantly, their prospects for long-term investment development.

The economic consequences are no less significant. Strengthening Giurgiulesti under Romanian management could accelerate the diversion of grain, fuel, and container flows toward ports operating in a more predictable regulatory and insurance environment. For Ukraine’s Danube ports, this may mean a growing risk of underutilization, lower revenues for port operators, slower modernization of berth and railway infrastructure, and a further narrowing of the market for Ukrainian logistics companies.

Vitaliy Barvinenko, Director of the Institute of Danube Research, noted that a separate concern is the growing dependence of regional logistics on decisions made outside Ukraine.

“In strategic terms, this may weaken the position of the Ukrainian part of the Danube as an independent transport hub and turn it into a peripheral segment of a broader Romanian-Moldovan logistics system,” Vitaliy Barvinenko stressed.

IDR experts emphasize that for Ukraine this should serve as a signal for an urgent revision of state policy toward the Danube ports. Without targeted investment in access infrastructure, navigational depths, multimodal solutions, tariff competitiveness, and a dedicated support programme for the Danube ports, Ukraine risks gradually losing part of its position in the Danube–Black Sea logistics space. Under current conditions, this is no longer only about port competition, but about the struggle for control over the future architecture of regional cargo flows.