Freight flows passing through Latvia-based Port of Liepaja in January-February grew by 35.4% year-on-year to more than 1.02 million tons, the Port Authority said.
In the reporting period, shipments of grain cargo soared 2.29 times from 2011’s figures, to 439,700 tons, of coal - by 8.2% to 19,700 tons. The volume of construction materials soared 46.9% to 50,100 tons, while shipments of wood pellets decreased by 21% to 16,200 tons.
Handling of petroleum products shrank by 2.8 times to 34,300 tons, shipments of crude oil – by nearly 15% to 12,900 tons. The volume of timber cargo grew by almost 16% to 138,200 tons. The volume of handled scrap metal increased by 2.2 times to 113,800 tons, of ferrous metals - declined by 2.7 times to 46,900 tons.
Container throughput rose by 2.3 times to 600 TEUs, transshipments of rolling cargoes increased by 1.74 times to 4,285 units. Passenger traffic increased by 1.8 times from a year earlier to 4571 people. The number of calls increased by 12.3% to 264,000 ships.
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 2011, Liepaja handled 4.85 million tons of cargo.