Cargo throughput at the ports of Latvia in January-February 2012 rose 29.4% year-over-year, to 12.7 million tons, the Baltic Course reported citing the Transport Ministry's statistics.
In the reporting period, the Freeport of Riga handled 6.19 million tons of cargo, a 28.8-percent gain from Jan-Feb. 2011. The Freeport of Ventspils lifted 5.36 million tons of cargo (+31.2% y-o-y), the Port of Liepaja – 1.03 m tons (+35.4%), reports LETA/Nozare.lv.
The two-month robust performance of the country's ports was driven primarily by dry bulk cargo, handling of which jumped by 46.1% year-over-year to 6.11 million tons. Handling of liquid bulk increased by 21% to 4.69 million tons, of general cargo – by 9.3% to 2 million tons.
In January-February, container throughput at the ports of Latvia surged 39.8% from a year earlier to 57,132 TEUs.