Klaipeda lags behind neighboring ports in terms of load - Butkevicius
The former Minister for Transport Algirdas Butkevicius, the elder of the opposition parliamentary group of the Lithuanian Social Democrats: Klaipeda State Seaport was a leading seaport in the last year in terms of load compared to the neighboring seaports of Ventspils, Riga and Tallinn, yet this year it lags behind them, writes LETA.
He noted that load at the Klaipeda State Seaport dropped 17.5% in the H1 of this year, compared to the same period in 2008. Meanwhile, over the said period, the cargo loaded in Ventspils fell only 0.6%, in Tallinn it grew 3.8% and in Riga seaport it went up 3%.
"It shows that a part of cargo which used to be transported to Klaipeda State Seaport went to the neighboring seaports," Butkevicius told at a news conference in the Seimas on Wednesday. According to him, the volume of transit at Klaipeda seaport dropped average 28.2%. The volume of transit from Russia fell 25.1%, from Kazakhstan – 77%, and from Belarus – 23.8%. "These figures show how it is important to maintain good economic relations with neighboring countries because the route of cargo transported depends on that," Butkevicius said.
According to the former transport minister, in 2008, transportation, storage and communications in general produced almost 13 billion litas (3.766 billion euros) of gross domestic product. However, in the Q1 of this year, this sector slumped 12% year-on-year. "I think that there will be even a larger decrease in the Q2 due to some worsened relations with the neighboring countries," Butkevicius predicted.