Port of Constanta grain terminal expansion completed to boost black sea logistics
The €23 million (US$26.2 million) investment increases the terminal’s grain storage capacity to 180,000 tonnes, enhancing Romania‘s ability to handle growing grain volumes from domestic producers as well as transit cargo from neighbouring countries.
ROMANIA – Romanian river transport and logistics operator Transport Trade Services (TTS) has officially completed a €23 million (US$26.2 million) expansion of its Canopus grain terminal at the Port of Constanța.
The project significantly enhances the Black Sea port’s agricultural throughput capacity by raising the facility’s total static storage capacity from 110,000 metric tons to 180,000 metric tons.
Operating through Canopus Star SRL, a joint venture between TTS and Cargill Agricultura SRL, the upgraded terminal strengthens critical logistics corridors for European and Black Sea grain exports.
Construction on the facility began in January 2025 and reached technical completion in July 2026.
The project was financed through a combination of 35% internal company capital and 65 percent commercial bank financing.
Infrastructure additions include six vertical steel grain storage silos with an individual capacity of 11,000 tons each, alongside five secondary buffer silos holding 825 tons apiece.
TTS also installed new conveyors, bucket elevators and three weighing stations on the vessel-loading line.
The physical footprint expansion enables higher operational flexibility during peak harvest periods by allowing the facility to segregate multiple crop types simultaneously.
To streamline intake logistics, the project integrated a new high-speed river barge discharge point alongside updated equipment for two dedicated truck-unloading bays.
Both the barge and truck receiving systems are engineered to handle intake rates of up to 400 tons per hour each.
The new installations are interconnected with existing terminal infrastructure via automated bucket elevators, high-capacity belt conveyors, and three certified inline scales positioned along the primary ship-loading circuit to maintain strict weight verification.
The terminal’s outward transshipment capabilities continue to rely on two existing heavy-duty shiploaders, which provide a combined transfer capacity of 1,600 tons per hour (800 tons per hour each) onto ocean-going vessels.
This rapid loading cycle is designed to minimize turnaround times for Panamax and Handymax vessels servicing international grain trade routes.
TTS executives highlighted that the investment addresses growing regional demand for reliable river-to-sea supply chain networks along the Danube corridor.
By expanding storage capacity and accelerating intake throughput, the expanded Canopus terminal provides agricultural trading houses with enhanced supply chain resilience and lower operational bottlenecks at the Port of Constanța.
The €23 million (US$26.2 million) investment, excluding VAT, was carried out by Canopus Star Constanta, with approximately 35% of the project financed from the company’s own resources and the remainder funded through a bank loan.
Canopus Star SRL Constanța, one of the three port operators of the TTS Group at the Port of Constanța, is a joint venture owned by TTS and Cargill Agricultura SRL, the Romanian operating subsidiary of US-based Cargill that specializes in the handling of agricultural commodities.
TTS, headquartered in Bucharest, is the parent company of TTS Group, a provider of integrated logistics services with port terminals in Constanta and seven Danube River ports.
The Canopus expansion comes as Romania’s overall 2026 grain harvest is projected to decline. Romania’s total grain production is expected to fall 4.6% in 2026 to 23.7 million tonnes, according to projections by Cocereal, amid slightly reduced cultivated areas and weaker average yields.
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