Cargo traffic at the Free Port of Riga in 2012 grew by 5.8% compared with the same period last year, to 36,051,900 tons, the Port Authority said.
Shipments of coal rose 10.4% year-on-year to 14.9 million tons, oil product transshipments increased by 2.1% to 7,676,000 tons. Handling of timber cargo fell 13.5% from last year’s numbers to 2,311 million tons, ore traffic plummeted by 80.9% to 121,200 tons, exports of pellets climbed 0.3% to 1.53 mln tons, shipments of construction materials slumped by 87.7% to 74,800 tons, while scrap metal volume increased by 29.3% to 661,900 tons.
Port of Riga container throughput rose 19.6% from a year earlier to 362,297 TEUs. Passenger traffic was up 5% to 815,026 people, 83,091 of them (+30.8%) were cruise tourists.
Latvia-based Free Port of Riga lies on both banks of the River Daugava (Western Dvina), The port encompasses 6.348 hectares, including 13,818-meter waterfront with berths max depths of 16 meters (ship draft - 12.2 m). Transit cargoes account for 80 percent of overall freight traffic moved to / from the CIS countries. In 2011, cargo throughput at the Port of Riga rose 11.8 percent year-over-year to 34.07 million tons.