North-Western Shipping Company traffic volumes down 5% to 1.27 mln t in QI’2016
Freight volume carried by the fleet of North-Western Shipping Company (NWSC) in January-March 2016 totaled 1.27 million tonnes, a 5-pct decline, year-on-year, the Company said in a press release.
The decline should be attributed to a higher share of high-yield freight. Vessels carrying such cargoes were not loaded for their return voyages. To expand this segment the Company switched part of its fleet from the Baltic and the North Sea to the Black and Mediterranean Sea. In the reported period, 26 vessels were deployed including 7 ships of Project RSD49 Neva-Leader.
Despite the reduction of operational rates the earnings from freight activities of the shipping company which make over 90% of the total receipts increased by 3%, year-on-year, to a total of RUB 1.86 billion in QI’2016.
About 70% of the revenues came from transportation of grain, timber, chemical and mineral fertilizers, ferrous metal scrap.
The structure of shipping did not undergo any significant changes during the Quarter I of 2016. The following shipments were made: 420,000 t of grain (+47%), 182,000 t of ferrous metal (-25%), 283,000 t of chemical and mineral fertilizers (-10%), 112,000 t of coal (-17%), 60,000 t of non-ferrous metal (+36%), 45,000 t of timber (-32%), 164,000 t of other types of cargo.
The majority of shipping – 872,000 t which equals to 68.8% - were formed by export cargo of the shipping company, its quantity growing by 2%. The majority of the exported range of items was formed by grain – 347,000 (+41.6%), ferrous metal – 162,000 (-23.6%), coal – 103,000 (- 19%), chemical and mineral fertilizers – 172,000 t (+ 63.8 %) and non-ferrous metal – 37,000 t (up 2-fold).
The transportation between foreign ports equaling to 346,000 t (27% of the total volume) fell by 18% mostly due to reduction in transportation of the major types of cargo in that sector – timber, ferrous and non-ferrous metal, fertilizers.
The volume of import cargo carried by the shipping company fell by 8% to 46,000 t, which was caused by the reduction of cargo traffic of ferrous materials, construction cargo and chemical cargo from the European countries to Russia. The import ratio in the general volume of traffic equaled to 3.6% in QI’2016.
North-Western Shipping Company, part of VBTH, a shipping division of UCL Holding, is the largest carrier in the Russian system of waterways, specializing on the export and import shipping of bulk, general and project cargoes, towages of oversized cargo and craft. The company provides a full range of transport services on the inland waterways of Russia and international sea traffic.
The company operates a fleet of 60 sea-going and mixed river-sea class vessels of 3,000 to 7,000 DWT and 3 Ro-Ro «river-sea» barges. Total deadweight of the Company's fleet is 270,000 tonnes with vessel average age of 14 years.