Cargo turnover of Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port up 0.4% to 39.2 mln t in H1 08
OAO Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (LSE: NCSP, RTS: NMTP, MICEX: NMTP) has released consolidated operating results for the first half of 2008. Cargo turnover grew 0.4% in the first half of 2008 from the same period last year to 39.206 million tonnes.
“OAO NCSP achieved cargo turnover of 39.206 million tonnes by focusing on the priority business areas - highly profitable cargo. These were the areas that showed substantial growth. For example, container handling grew 62.4% in the first half of 2008, transshipment of petroleum products grew 24.3%, and cargo turnover for ferrous metals grew 11.2%,” OAO NCSP General Director Igor Vilinov said, commenting on the operating results. “Despite the export duty on Russian grain that applied in the first half year, company management was able to partially offset the decline in grain loading by attracting transit shipments from Kazakhstan,” he said.
The share of container cargo in cargo turnover grew from 4.2% in the first half of last year to 6.7% in the same period this year and totaled 188,400 TEU. This is one of the most promising areas for OAO NCSP, and the port’s investment program envisions further expansion of container terminals.
The new bunkerage complex opened in 2007 enabled the company to increase the share of petroleum product transshipment in cargo turnover to 13.8% from 11.1% in the first half of last year.
Grain transshipment is one of the priority areas for OAO NCSP. However, grain cargo turnover dropped by 52% in the first six months of 2008 because an export duty was introduced for the first half of the year on wheat and barley. The impact of the export duty was softened somewhat as OAO NCSP shifted to providing transit for grain from Kazakhstan, which accounted for 62.3% of grain cargo turnover for the company in the first half of 2008. The export duty was lifted on July 1 and the first shipments of wheat and barley are already arriving at the OAO NCSP grain terminal. The lifting of the export duty for grain and the shipments of the new harvest to the NovorossiyskPort will facilitate an increase in cargo turnover and will enable OAO NCSP to meet its production targets for 2008.
OAO NCSP began transshipment of imported cement at the start of this year as part of its efforts to attract new kinds of cargo. It transshipped 737,800 tonnes of cement in the first six months.
As a result of the OAO NCSP strategy to optimize cargo traffic, the transshipment of highly profitable cargo increased while loading of less profitable cargo declined, namely ores and iron ore concentrate (down 81.8%) and scrap metal (down 74.6%).
According to the Association of Sea Ports, OAO NCSP (OAO Novorossiisk Commercial Sea Port) is the largest Russian port operator in terms of cargo turnover. OAO NCSP cargo turnover based on consolidated reports for 2007 totaled 79.3 million tonnes. OAO NCSP is traded on the London Stock Exchange and Russia’s RTS and MICEX. OAO NCSP earnings to IFRS for 2007 totaled $483.4 million, EBITDA totaled $227.9 million, and net profit totaled $93.7 million (according to consolidated financial reports).
OAO NCSP is the largest stevedoring company operating at Novorossiysk, a deepwater ice-free multi-product port on the Black Sea that is essentially Russia’s southern sea gates for the export and import of a broad spectrum of cargo (including oil, petroleum products, timber, grain, fertilizers, ferrous metals, containers, automobiles, and other products). OAO NCSP handled about 96% of the cargo at Novorossiysk port in 2007.
OAO NCSP includes the following stevedoring companies: OAO Novorossiysk Grain Terminal, OAO Novorossiysk Shipyard, OAO NCSP Fleet, OAO Novoroslesexport, OAO IPP, and OOO Baltic Stevedoring Company.