The advent of steamships on the Danube and Tisza rivers in 1830-1831 did not alter trade routes but rather continued to develop along the paths that had been used before their arrival. Steam-powered ships had appeared about a decade earlier, but they did not play a significant role in transporting goods.
The construction of railways expanded traffic, with its volume resulting from increased production and trade of goods. In addition to boosting production and commerce, the railway became a serious competitor to the existing river transport systems.
The railway dealt a severe blow to trade along the Tisza-Danube-Sava routes toward the sea. However, the railway could not compete with river transport where there were direct river routes without the need for reloading, especially when it came to bulk cargo.
Around the time of the railway construction in the Banat region, the construction of macadam roads also began, which further confirmed the rapid economic development of the time and the need for more reliable transportation, particularly during winter when the rivers were frozen.
All the developments in transportation—such as the invention of the steam engine, the growth of railways and steamships, as well as changes in trade practices (increased use of credit capital)—also influenced the organization of trade in Novi Bečej.
The development of the railway, the rise in steamship traffic on the Danube and Tisza, spurred further growth in agriculture and the agricultural processing industry. This development also meant the relocation of grain trade to new centers.
Novi Bečej, once the largest grain trade center, began to lose its importance. This role shifted to towns along the newly built railway lines, particularly those at railway junctions, especially if they also had river ports, such as Timișoara, Veliki Bečkerek (Zrenjanin), and Pančevo in the Banat region.
According to old records about Novi Bečej, some merchants had their grain warehouses outside the town, which were not adequately protected by the authorities. As a result, they were reportedly frequent targets of various criminals who would rob them and threaten the personal safety of the merchants. This led to rumors of mysterious disappearances of certain merchants, as well as brutal murders and robberies. In his memoirs, Endre Istvánfi saw this as one of the serious reasons for the decline of Novi Bečej as a grain trade center and why more than a hundred grain warehouses remained empty.
There were likely robberies in Novi Bečej, but they were certainly not the cause of its decline in commercial power.
Although the railway and road traffic diminished the significance of Novi Bečej in grain trade, it remained the busiest port on the Tisza in Yugoslavia until World War II.
According to the statistics of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia for 1929, 26,444 tons of grain were shipped from the Novi Bečej port, while 21,252 tons were shipped from the Stari Bečej (now Bečej) port, 16,375 tons from Titel, 10,324 tons from Novi Kneževac, and so on.
In 1929, the Novi Bečej port was also among the top in terms of passenger traffic. The port in Stari Bečej (Bečej) saw 28,931 passengers, Novi Bečej 28,380, Titel 11,096, and Senta 2,194 passengers.
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