PJSC (“NCSP Group” or the “Group”) (LSE: NCSP, Moscow Exchange: NMTP) announces its consolidated operating results for January – October, 2012. Cargo handling across stevedoring assets of Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port Group in January-October 2012 totaled 134.4 million tons, which represents a 3.6% year-on-year, the Group’s press release said.
The ten-month volume growth was driven primarily by increased exports of oil products, ferrous metals and grain. The commodities shipment rose 9.7%, 23.2% and 76.4%, respectively.
NCSP Group CEO Rado Antolovic comments: “NCSP has maintained higher y-o-y cargo throughput in January-October, 2012 amidst a weakening global economy, unfavourable weather conditions, and Sochi 2014 Olympics-related priorities affecting railway deliveries in the South of Russia. This was achieved largely due to the universal nature of our port facilities, which allows for handling a wide variety of cargoes and enables us to respond quickly to changes in the market situation. This year, increased handling of ferrous metals and a number of other cargoes alongside with strong performance in the oil, oil products and grain segments enabled us to set off the effect of the declining market for iron ore and fertilizers. In order to enhance operational efficiency and ensure strong, resilient cargo throughput the Group is investing in further cargo base diversification, capacity expansion and service quality improvement, in line with its long-term master plan.”
Liquid cargo
The transhipment of liquid cargo in the reporting period increased by 2.9 million tonnes (or 2.7%) year-on-year to the total of 110.8 million tonnes. Crude oil handling in January-October, 2012 totalled 94.7 million tonnes which represents a 1.3% increase from the same period of 2011. Oil products turnover grew by a solid 9.7% year-on-year, reaching 15.4 million tonnes with fuel oil throughput in Novorossiysk and diesel volumes in Primorsk being major drivers.
Bulk cargo
In total, NCSP handled 10.3 million tonnes of bulk cargo in January – October, 2012, up 1.7% year-on-year. Growth can be attributed largely to grain, handling of which surged up by 76.4% or 3.1 million tonnes from the previous year to the total of 7.1 million tonnes.
To further diversify the Group’s cargo base, this August NCSP started handling coal, one of the major drivers of turnover growth at Russian sea ports. Since then the Company has handled 87.2 thousand tonnes of coal at its Novorossiysk facilities.
General cargo
In January - October, 2012, general cargo throughput increased by 18.5% year-on-year and reached 9.1 mln tonnes. Handling of ferrous metals accounted for the bulk of this growth and totalled 7.2 mln tonnes, up 1.4 mln tonnes, if compared to the previous year. Timber turnover demonstrated a sound 25.4% year-on-year increase and amounted to 623.9 thousand tonnes.
Containers
In the first ten months of 2012, NCSP increased its container throughput to 517 thousand TEU, up 5.4% year-on-year. Baltiysk Container Terminal was the major contributor to this growth with a strong performance resulting in a 12.4% increase from the previous year. To capitalize on fast growing container segment, the Group continues with the plans to expand container terminals in Novorossiysk and Baltiysk, both currently operating to capacity.
About NCSP Group
NCSP Group is the largest port operator in Russia and the third-largest in Europe, in terms of cargo turnover. NCSP shares are traded on Russia's Moscow Exchange (ticker: NMTP) and on the London Stock Exchange in the form of GDRs (ticker: NCSP). 50.1% shares of PJSC “NCSP” belong to Novoport Holding Ltd, the beneficial owners of which are OJSC “Transneft” and Summa Group. NCSP Group cargo turnover in 2011 totalled 157 million tonnes. Consolidated revenue according to IFRS totalled $1,050 million and EBITDA was $550 million, in 2011. NCSP Group consolidates the following companies: PJSC “Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port”, LLC “Primorsk Trade Port”, PJSC “Novorossiysk Grain Terminal”, OJSC “Novorossiysk Ship Repair Yard”, OJSC “NCSP Fleet”, OJSC “NLE”, OJSC “IPP”, CJSC “Baltic Stevedore Company” and CJSC “SFP”.