Although in the past decades a number of studies and activities to improve business of cargo ports were carried out, still the cargo seaports in the Republic of Croatia are not competitive in relation to the cargo seaports in the Adriatic and Mediterranean seas, thereby the objective of this thesis was to use theoretical and practical knowledge to establish activities which will lead to improvement in the business activities of cargo seaports in Croatia. At the beginning of this thesis work for a better understanding of the issues, important features of maritime transport and seaports are presented, such as: the concept of maritime transport and ports, types of maritime transport and ports and the function of maritime ports. After thoroughly elaborated features of maritime transport and seaports special attention was paid to the cargo seaports, setting out the legal guidelines of management of seaports, the movement of freight traffic in seaports and assessment of management of cargo seaports in Croatia. Given the fact that container traffic is one of the most promising forms of transport, an analyze has been made in container traffic and an assessment of container traffic management in the seaports of Croatia is presented. Based on the analysis and evaluation of the degree of business efficiency of cargo ports and container traffic in Croatia a few suggestions for improvement of cargo ports are laid out by the Ministry, port associations, port authorities and major actors in the business of cargo seaports. In the end, it was concluded that to improve freight operations of Croatian ports it is necessary to set a consistent transport and port policies that will be consistent with standards and regulations of the European Union. Premda se više desetljeća proučava i unapređuje poslovanje teretnih morskih luka, one u Republici Hrvatskoj još uvijek nisu konkurentne takvim lukama u Jadranskome i Sredozemnom moru, stoga je predmet istraživanja u ovom radu bio da se uz pomoć teorijske i praktične spoznaje utvrde aktivnosti koje će dovesti do unapređenja u poslovanju hrvatskih teretnih morskih luka. Na početku razmatranja, poradi boljeg razumijevanja same problematike, predočene su važnije značajke o pomorskom prometu i morskim lukama, kao što su pojam pomorskog prometa i morskih luka, njihove vrste i funkcije. Nakon detaljno elaboriranih značajki posebna je pozornost posvećena teretnim morskim lukama, iznoseći zakonske odrednice za upravljanje njima, opseg teretnog prometa i, konačno, ocjena upravljanja teretnim morskim lukama u Republici Hrvatskoj. S obzirom na činjenicu da je kontejnerski promet vrlo perspektivan oblik prijevoza tereta, izvršena je analiza kontejnerskog prometa te je predstavljena ocjena upravljanja kontejnerskim prometom u morskim lukama. Na temelju dobivenih pokazatelja izneseno je i elaborirano nekoliko prijedloga kojima bi se poboljšalo poslovanje teretnih morskih luka uz podršku Ministarstva, udruženja luka, lučkih uprava i važnijih sudionika u njihovu poslovanju. Na kraju, zaključeno je da bi pritom bilo prijeko potrebno uspostaviti konzistentnu prometnu i lučku politiku koja će biti usklađena sa standardima i propisima Europske unije.