In January-February, cargo throughput at Russian seaports grew 5.1 percent year-on-year to 81.9 million tons, the Association of Sea Ports said.
The two-month volume of dry bulk cargo was 34.3 million tons, a13.7-percent gain from a year ago. The increase was driven mainly by a surge in grain exports, as much as 6.2 times year-on-year to 2.7 mln tons, a 12.5-percent spike in coal shipments to 11.5 million tons, a 37.2-percent increase in cargo volumes carried by ferry services – 1.3 mln tons, by a 15.5-percent growth in containerized cargo, to 6.4 million tons. Exports of ferrous metals rose 16.5% to 4.6 million tons, handling of timber cargo grew by 0.4% to 0.8 million tons, of non-ferrous metals – by 18.0% to 0.7 million tons, of scrap metal – by 8.4% to 0.5 million tons.
At the same time, there was a decline in some segments of bulk cargo: exports of mineral fertilizer shrank by 19.8% to 1.5 million tons, of ore – by 8.2% to 1.3 million tons, handling of unitized cargo slumped 2.5 times from the previous year’s figures, to 0.5 million tons, shipments of refrigerated cargoes dropped by 1.7 times to 0.5 million tons.
The two-month volume of liquid bulk cargo handled at the nation’s ports totaled 47.6 million tons (-0.4%), nearly flat on 2011’s numbers. Shipments of crude oil dropped 5.2% to 30 million tons, of oil products – by 8.2% to 17.2 million tons.
In the reporting period the Russian ports saw a 10.7-percent growth in exports, to 65 million tons. Imports dropped by 10.4-percent to 6 million tons, handling of transit cargo was down 9.8% to 7.2 million tons, of short sea traffic – by 19.3% to 3.7 million tons.
In January-February, stevedore companies of the Arctic basin handled 5.1 million tons of cargo, a 27.9% decline from the same period a year ago. Shipments of dry bulk cargo grew by 4.9% to 3.5 million tons, the liquid bulk volume shrank by more than twofold to 1.6 million tons, largely due to a 5.5 times slump in the cargo throughput at the port of Murmansk, the Varandey terminal’s performance (a 2.6-fold drop) and a 1.5% decline in liquid bulk exports at the port of Vitino. At the same time freight traffic passing through the port of Arkhangelsk rose 10.1%, cargo handing at Dudinka port increased by 15.8%, at the port of Kandalaksha - by 7.2%.
In the Baltic Sea-based Russian ports boosted exports/imports volume to 30.2 million tons (+ 18.8%). Most of them demonstrated robust performance in the past two months. Shipments of dry cargo rose 15.6% year-on-year to 10.9 million tons, of liquid bulk cargo – by 20.8% to 19.3 million tons. Cargo throughput of Primorsk terminal increased by 18.1% to 13.1 million tons, handling of cargo at the Port of St. Petersburg rose to 8.2 million tons (+2.6%), Ust-Luga port traffic volume soared 2.6 times to 4.5 million tons, thanks to commissioning of a new oil terminal. The port of Vyborg throughput grew by 5.9% to 0.2 million tons. At the same time, the two-month traffic volume at the ports of Kaliningrad fell 6.2% from the 2011’s figure to 2.1 million tons, the port of Vysotsk handled 2.2 million tons (-4.1%).
Handling of cargo at the ports of Azov-Black Sea basin totaled 24 9 million tons, down 0.8% from Jan-Feb. 2011. Shipments of dry bulk cargo grew to 8.2 million tons (+22.3%), while liquid bulk volume was down 9.2% to 16.7 million tons. Port of Novorossiysk demonstrated a 4.1% gain to 18.9 million tons, Port of Rostov-on-Don throughput was up 12.8% to 0.9 million tons, the port of Azov handled 0.3 million tons (+6.5 %). The port of Taman reported a 3.1 times growth to 0.2 million tons. The port of Tuapse saw in the reporting period a 9.6-percent decline in freight volume, to 2.9 million tons, the port of Taganrog handled 0.3 million tons (-33.9%), the port of Yeysk – 0.3 million tons (-10.3% ), the port of Temryuk – 0.2 million tons (-4%).