Scientific paper ID 1134 : 2015/2

The EC countries flag carriers are facing the severe competition on the side of third counties’ carriers, taking advantage of more flexible rules, low-cost labor, at the same time being supported by the state authorities. The lack of market balance accompanied by the influence of the macro environmental factors, such as the economic crisis is displacing the leading position of maritime transport outside Europe. A large-scale research project of Oxford University concentrated over three main fields, such as the direct impact of shipping industry over economy, the indirect impact, connected to the supporting services as well as the costs of main operators has indicated minor role of Bulgarian maritime shipping within the EU. As far as the container shipping is concerned, the growth in number of containers carried through port of Burgas almost doubles the number of containers carried through the port of Varna, still both the Bulgarian ports are behind other regional leaders such as the ports of Novorossiysk, Odessa or Samsun. At the same time, the level of the considered as prospective ferryboat carriages of Varna ferry complex is unsatisfactory and the capacity is much bigger than the demand.