Freight traffic passing through the Free Port of Riga in January-June of this year increased by 15.4% from a year earlier, to 16,82 million tons, the Port Authority said.
Six-month volume of oil products surged 45.2% to 4,28 million tons, timber cargo rose by 1.9% to 1,38 million tons, transshipment of coal was up 10.5% to 6,45 million tons, grain shipments increased by nearly 1.5 times to 224,900 tons, handling of ore grew by 19%, to 309,500 tons, chemicals - by 12.1% - to 784,500 tons (including 784,000 tons of fertilizer). Volume of wood chips dropped by 20.4% to 495,200 tons, while handling of metals soared by nearly 2 times as much, to 295,000 tons.
Container throughput increased by 22.8%, to 141,730 TEUs. Handling of rolling cargo fell by 16.3% to 261,000 tons.
Free Port of Riga is situated on both banks of the River Daugava (Western Dvina). The port encompasses 6.348 ha, 13.818-m waterline. Riga port can accommodate vessels with maximum draft of 12.2 m. The bulk of freight volumes passing through the port are transit cargoes (80%), shipped to / from the CIS countries. In 2010 cargo throughput of Port of Riga rose by 2.5% y-o-y, to 30,475 million tons.