Baltic ports up cargo turnover 0.7% in Jan-Feb
RIGA. April 4 (Interfax/BNS) - Baltic ports handled 0.7% more cargo in January-February 2013 compared to the same period of 2012 at 27.72 million tonnes, the Latvian central statistics department told the Baltic News Service.
Latvian ports handled 43.9% of the total cargo, Lithuania - 27.9% and Estonia - 28.2%.
Cargo turnover at Latvian ports dropped 4.9% to 12.17 million tonnes, it increased 15.8% at Lithuanian ports to 7.73 million tonnes and fell 3% at Estonian ports to 7.82 million tonnes.
The biggest volume of cargo turnover was at Klaipeda Port where it climbed 16.3% year-on-year to 6.13 million tonnes. Riga Port was next with 5.47 million tonnes, but that was down 11.6%. Ventspils Port was third with cargo turnover up 2% to 5.47 million tonnes and Tallinn Port was fourth with cargo turnover of 5.38 million tonnes, which was down 4.9% on the first two months of 2012.
Klaipeda Port Chairman Arvydas Vaitkus told BNS that cargo turnover at the port is growing due to shipments of fertilizer, petroleum products and agriculture products.
Fertilizer shipments increased this year due to a rise in exports from Belarusian company Belaruskali, he said. In the first quarter the port plans to handle almost 3 million tonnes of fertiliser, up 35% on the first quarter of 2012 (2.2 million tonnes), Vaitkus said.
Baltic ports handled 162.3 million tonnes of cargo in 2012 with Latvian ports accounting for 46.3% of the total, Lithuanian ports for 27% and Estonian ports for 26.7%.
