Dockers from Bourgas Port Ltd will hold a protest outside the administrative centre of the port on February 16 2010, the Bulgarian news agency BTA said.

The announcement was made by Zdravovesta Nikolova, head of the Podkrepa labour union in the city.

The dockers are unhappy with the interest payments the company faces for the loan taken to build the new terminal in the port, known asTerminal A2.

More than 200 million leva was poured into the Bourgas port over several years for the construction of Terminal 2A, designed to process freight exclusively, in addition to the development of a deep water canal.

To date, about 300 people were sacked while 1000 remain at work. Bourgas Port Ltd is having difficulty meeting its payments for money borrowed for a construction at the port. They argue that the Bulgarian Government ought to step in to alleviate the situation.

Another obstacle surrounding the new facility is that Terminal 2A is a freight exclusively designed terminal, which currently does not have the capacity to process container cargo.

"The future is in container cargo. If Bourgas fails to act on the matter, we will lose our business to other ports like Piraeus (south of Athens) or Costanza (Romania)," Nikolova was quoted as saying.

Earlier in January 2010, a declaration signed by local businesses was sent to Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boiko Borissov and Transport Minister Alexander Tsvetkov, asking the Bulgarian Government to "take immediate steps to reconstruct and modernise dockyards around the port city of Bourgas".

A month earlier, Bourgas mayor Dimitar Nikolov summoned an emergency meeting with local port authorities, members of Parliament and heads of maritime business in the city. The meeting addressed the significance of establishing a "united front" entrusted with the development of the local dockyards and ports, which have been badly affected by the economic crisis.

"If we fail to act, nothing will happen in our city," Nikolov said, quoted by Stroitelstvo Gradut on January 8 2010.

Because of the economic crisis, however, most heavy industries across Bulgaria have suffered severely, and with them, the port facilities, and, in particular, newly built installations. Accordingly, the Bourgas authorities demand a 10 million leva investment immediately for the "urgent partial reconstruction of Terminal 2A, so that the terminal can also process container cargo", the report says.

Additionally, Bourgas requests substantial investment to build the new 1A terminal.