Cargo traffic at Latvia-based Free Port of Ventspils in January-October 2012 rose 10% from last year’s numbers to 25.95 million tons, the Port Authority statistics said.
In the reporting period, shipments of liquid bulk totaled 14.36 million tons, or up 14.8% from Jan-Oct, 2011, including 13.8 mln tons of oil products (+14%). The ten-month volume of black coal grew 26% to 6.7 million tons, handling of rolling cargoes increased by 2% to 1.6 million tons. The number of passengers and cars carried by ferry lines grew by 29% and 36%, accordingly.
Seven of ten terminals of the port boosted cargo handling versus last year’s numbers.
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.