Port of Ventspils seven-month throughput rises 17 percent
Cargo traffic at Free Port of Ventspils in January-July 2012 rose 17% from last year’s numbers to 19.4 million tons, the Port Authority statistics said.
In the reporting period, shipments of liquid bulk totaled 10.3 million tons, or up 22% from Jan-Jul, 2011, the volume of black coal surged 52% to 5.3 million tons, handling of rolling cargoes increased by 5% to 1 million tons. The number of passengers and cars carried by ferry lines grew by 29% and 36%, accordingly.
The seven-month throughput growth was driven by Ventspils nafta terminals (a 16% increase), Baltic Coal Terminal (+29%), Ventspils tirdzniecības osta (+22%) and Ventbunkers (+5%).
In July 2012, traffic volume at the port was flat on the same period, to 2.1 million tons.
Latvia’s Free port of Ventspils is a deepwater ice-free port. The country’s premier port ranks among leading ports on the Baltic Sea and top 20 European ports. The port can accommodate Aframax size tankers of 130.000 DWT and Panamax vessels of 75.000 DWT. The port encompasses 2623,9 hectares with terminals for handling oil products, crude oil, liquid chemicals, mineral fertilizer, metals, forest products, coal, grain, juice concentrates, containers and Ro-Ro cargoes. In 2011, cargo traffic at the port rose 15% year-on-year to 28.5 mln tons.