Total cargo throughput at Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port, NCSP Group, in the first quarter of 2012 reached 41.1 million tons, up 10.4% (3.9 million tons) from the same period in 2011, the Group press release said.
In the reporting period, NCSP Group demonstrated a 24.5-percent growth in the segment of general cargoes to 600,000 tons, driven by increased traffic (+32.6%) of ferrous metals, to 600,000 tons, of timber cargo – by 9.2% (+13,000 tons) and other goods - by 23,000 tons, which offset the decline in non-ferrous metals volume (-11,000 tons) and perishables (-39,000 tons).
Three-month volume of liquid bulk grew 5.7% year-on-year to 1.8 million tons. Exports of crude oil through NCSP’s terminal totaled 28.5 million tons, up 5.2% from 2011’s numbers thanks to crude traffic through Primorsk Trade Port, which totaled 1.7 million tons (+10.7%).
Shipments of oil products from the terminals of NCSP Group rose 5.9% (0.3m t) to 5 million tons, including 1.8 million tons of diesel fuel exported through Primorsk Trade Port.
Grain exports totaled 2.2 million tons, including 1 million tons handled by the Group’s stevedores in March, the second record monthly volume in the history of the Group (after September 2011’s figure).
Acting CEO of PJCS NCSP Rado Antolovic commented: “New management strategy to improve efficiency of operations processes yielded initial results. Although during the first quarter of 2012 transshipment was shut down due to extremely bad weather conditions from 14 to 30 days depending on the type of cargo, the Group was able to exceed the industry average growth rate by almost 2 times”.
“We are currently seeing recovery in ferrous metals and timber, the demand for which fell significantly in 2011. Growth rate in turnover of ferrous metals, one of our most profitable cargos, almost twice exceeded the industry average”, Antolovic said.
Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port is the largest Russian company and ranks third operator in Europe in terms of cargo throughput. The NCSP Group incorporates the following stevedore companies: PJSC Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port, PJSC Novorossiysk Grain Terminal, OJSC Novorossiysk Shipyard, PJSC Fleet of NCSP, OJSC NovorosLesExport, OJSC IPP, Baltic Stevedoring Company Ltd. and PJSC Primorsk Trade Port Ltd. Novoport Holding Ltd, which is beneficially owned by Transneft and Ziyavudin Magomedov (Summa Group), holds a 50.1% stake in PJSC NCSP. Consolidated revenue according to IFRS for the nine months of 2011 totaled $782 million and EBITDA of $404 million. NCSP shares are traded on Russia's MICEX exchange (NMTP) and on the London Stock Exchange in the form of GDRs (NCSP). In 2011, cargo traffic at NCSP Group totaled 157 million tons.