Cargo traffic at the Latvian port of Liepaja in January-October increased by 10.5% compared with the same period last year, to 3.94 million tons, the Port Authority said.
Ten-month volume of grain cargo was down 6.9 percent on last year’s numbers, to 1.04 million tons, while handling of construction materials rose by more than twofold to 467,600 tons.
Shipments of timber cargo fell by 23.9 % to 591,900 tons. Exports of scrap metal surged 57.2 percent to 301,200 tons. The volume of ferrous metals decreased by 33.2% to 256,200 tons, of non-ferrous metals rose by more than 2.49 times to 107,300 tons. of Coal volume soared by almost twofold to 105,600 tons. Transshipment of oil products increased by 12.7% to 376,100 tons, of crude oil fell by 13.2% to 87,500 tons, of chemical goods decreased by 33.1% to 36,200 tons.
Container traffic grew by nearly two times, to 2,666 TEUs. Handling of rolling cargo grew by 2.19 times, to 14,923 units.
In the reporting period, the number of calls increased by 6.8% to 1,197 ships. Passenger traffic through the port more than doubled, to 16,682 people.
Monthly volume of cargo handled at the port in October amounted to 450,500 tons.
Port of Liepaja was founded in the 90s of last century at the former Soviet Union’s naval base. Liepaja ranks third port of Latvia by handled cargo volume. Half of the port’s cargo throughput is fueled by crude oil and bulk cargoes imported from the CIS countries, largely from Belorussia. In 2010, Liepaja handled 4,38 million tons of cargo, on a par with 2009’s figures.