On Trieste’s navigable canal, where the Aquila refinery once operated, the 245-metre quay built by the Autorità di Sistema Portuale del Mare Adriatico Orientale (Eastern Adriatic Sea Port System Authority) is nearing completion. Behind it, however, work has yet to begin on the new Adria Port terminal across the 32 hectares of Hungarian-owned land earmarked for yards and warehouses, while Hungary’s new government, led by Péter Magyar, has launched a review of the project. This is the scheme through which Viktor Orbán’s previous government intended to give the country its own access to the sea. News of a possible reassessment appeared on 22 September 2026 in Hungarian news outlet Telex, while the government replied that responsibility for the project had been transferred from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to the Ministry of Transport and Investment, headed by Dávid Vitézy. The ministry “is examining in detail the financial, technical and market justification of the investment” and will take a decision only once the review has been completed. In the same response, Budapest said cooperation with Italy was continuing and that the port works funded by Rome had not been interrupted, adding that the project had also been discussed at the May meeting in Rome between Magyar and Giorgia Meloni. At present, therefore, no decision has been taken to suspend, revoke or abandon the project.
The choice of Trieste dates back to 2018, when the Fidesz government opted for the Italian port instead of an investment in Koper. The following year, state-owned Adria Port Zrt, established at the end of 2019, acquired the two Italian companies that owned the site in a €31 million transaction that also included a concession running until 2074. The state concession covers only the waterfront, while the land behind it belongs to the Hungarian company. The final project envisages around 650 metres of quay frontage and some 30 hectares for logistics activities.
The Hungarian government has not specified which aspects it considers problematic, but the project’s history offers several potential issues, starting with the timetable. In 2022, then Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said the terminal would begin serving Hungarian exporters in 2026, but work on the site only began in February 2025, almost four years after the acquisition. The target was therefore pushed back to 2028, a date that State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Levente Magyar again confirmed in Rome in February 2026. The schedule for the landside development appears even less certain. Adria Port waited for the preliminary consultation process with Italy’s Ministry of the Environment to be completed before launching the tender for the terminal design and starting remediation of the land. The tender was due to be launched in early 2026, but the Hungarian elections put the procedure on hold.
The second issue is the financial commitment required from Budapest, which the Hungarian government has yet to make. According to RailFreight, the previous Hungarian government put the overall cost of land remediation and terminal construction at around HUF 80 billion, or about €200 million. That figure is now part of a Hungarian debate dominated by the economic crisis and limited public finances. The project had also never been supported by what was then the opposition and is now in government.
In Italy, by contrast, the works are already at an advanced stage. The port authority allocated €45 million from the Fondo complementare al Pnrr, Italy’s complementary fund to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, for the quay and dredging works, while a further €10 million was recently allocated for deeper dredging. The additional funding came shortly before Prime Minister Magyar’s visit to Meloni, during which the Hungarian premier called for environmental approvals to be accelerated. The port authority has also launched a tender for the design of an extension that would bring the quay to a total length of 630 metres, a project requiring a further €83 million.
Another issue regarded as critical in Budapest concerns the finances of the project company. Based on its financial statements, Átlátszó reported that Adria Port Zrt has posted a loss in every financial year since 2019, generally between HUF 300 million and HUF 400 million a year. In 2024, the loss amounted to HUF 353.2 million, around €900,000, bringing the cumulative total close to HUF 2 billion, or about €5 million. Revenue comes from leasing the site and amounted to just HUF 9.2 million, around €23,000, in 2024, while the workforce increased to twelve employees.
The industrial basis of the project also appears to be poorly documented. According to the Hungarian newspaper, the feasibility study was commissioned only in January 2021, after the site had been acquired. It was prepared by PwC Hungary, with a mandate to define a technically feasible and commercially viable plan together with the operating model. In 2023, Adria Port denied Átlátszó access to the documents on commercial confidentiality grounds, but following a complaint to Hungary’s data protection authority, the study was released in November 2024. Hvg, however, found that 167 of its 192 pages had been completely redacted, while projected volumes, target cargoes and the expected return on investment have never been made public.
Finally, questions remain over the market and the technical characteristics of the project, which is expected to become a multipurpose terminal focused more on ro-ro traffic and project cargo than on containers. The specifications include 650 metres of usable quay, access for vessels with a draught of 13 metres and a rail connection to Aquilinia station. The draught is insufficient for the largest container ships, effectively limiting access to feeder vessels. In addition, in 2024 the quay was redesigned as a straight structure, removing the finger piers originally planned for ro-ro ships. Finally, the concession area was reduced from 63,200 to 60,500 square metres.
M.L.
