Throughput of Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port Group down 10% to 37 mln t in QI'13
Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port Group announced that its consolidated cargo turnover for the period of January-March 2013 amounted to 37 million tonnes, compared to 41 million tonnes in the same period of last year.
Handling of liquid cargo in the reporting period decreased by 2,682.7 ths tonnes (or 8.0%) year-on-year to 31,030.8 ths tonnes.
Crude oil handling in January-March 2013 totalled 24,017 ths tonnes, compared to 28,483.1 ths tonnes in the same period of last year. In March, crude handling increased by 734.9 ths tonnes compared to February, including 249.4 ths tonnes in Novorossiysk and 485.5 ths tonnes in Primorsk. Thus the Group was able to catch up a little on crude volumes, and year-on-year decrease in Q1 2013 was lower than that of January-February 2013 by two percentage points.
Oil products transhipment demonstrated growth of 1,810.5 ths tonnes (36.1%) compared to January-March 2012 and amounted to 6827.8 ths tonnes. Oil products’ year-on-year growth in Q1 2013 improved over that of January-February 2013 (31.5%) by 4 percentage points.
In the first three months of 2013, NCSP Group handled 1,601.0 ths tonnes of bulk cargo. The decrease of 1769.8 ths tonnes relative to January-March 2012 was largely due to a decline in grain volumes caused by a poor harvest of 2012.
Coal, which the Group was handling since August 2012, now makes a substantial contribution by compensating for shrinking volumes of other cargo. In January-March 2013 coal handling comprised 296.5 ths tonnes. The growth in coal volumes in March compared to February amounted to 43.5 ths tonnes (53.6%).
Transhipments of sugar increased materially, to 241.8 ths tonnes, demonstrating growth of 120.4% compared to the first quarter of the previous year.
Cement handling increased by 38.2% compared to the same period of the previous year, in part as a result of a contract with the major Turkish cement producer Chimsa.
Handling of iron ore and ore concentrate increased by 1.8% year-on-year, though March volumes exceed February volumes by 16.6%
General cargo volumes continued growth in the three months of 2013, with throughput increasing by 302.7 ths tonnes (10.8%) and amounting to 3,105.3 ths tonnes.
Volumes of ferrous metals increased by 275.4 ths tonnes (12.0%) year-on-year against the 10.3%* year-on-year decrease of ferrous metals handling at all Russian seaports combined in the reporting period.
Timber volumes declined 15.4% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2013. Timber exports continue to be affected by ongoing political instability in some African and Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt and Syria, which are among the top importers or Russian timber. Handling of timber at Russian sea ports decreased by 21.8%* year-on-year in the first three months of 2013.
NCSP Group total container throughput in January and March 2013 increased by 9.9 thousand TEU (6.6%) year-on-year. The highest growth was achieved by NLE in Novorossiysk, where volumes increased by 27.8%, setting a monthly record of container shipments at 32.7 TEU, 20.8% higher than in February of this year.
Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NMTP Group) is Russia’s largest port operator in terms of cargo turnover. NCSP shares are traded on Russia's Moscow Exchange (ticker: NMTP) and on the London Stock Exchange in the form of GDRs (ticker: NCSP). 50.1% shares of PJSC “NCSP” belong to Novoport Holding Ltd, the beneficial owners of which are OJSC “Transneft” and Summa Group. The Group comprises the following stevedoring companies: Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port OJSC, Primorsk Commercial Port, Novorossiysk Grain Terminal OJSC, Novorossiysk Ship Repair Yard OJSC, NCSP Fleet OJSC, Novoroslesexport OJSC, IPP OJSC, Baltic Stevedore Company LLC and SFP CJSC. In 2012, the Group’s throughput gained 1.2% to 158.9 mln tonnes.