Freight throughput of JSC Sea Port Saint-Petersburg (Seaport St. Pb) in January-March 2016 reached 1.73 million tonnes, 13% less than in the same period a year ago, the stevedoring company said on Wednesday.
The decline was due to less volume of scrap metal and fertilizer exports. For example, scrap metal volume shrank by 42% to 0.2 million tonnes following a drop in purchase prices of the Middle East customers and an increase in the Russian market. Bulk fertilizers volume sank by 89% to 0.02 million tonnes due to the redistribution of the cargo traffic to dedicated terminals in Russia and the Baltic countries.
At the same time, handling of the stevedore's main commodity, ferrous and non-ferrous metals increased by 8% to 0.645 million tonnes, and 1.7% to 0.403 million tonnes, respectively, thanks to booming export of steel and aluminum by Russian steel works.
Since the beginning of the year the terminal operator increased handling of pellets by 24.7% to 0.041 million tonnes. In the reporting period the port saw a a 7% growth in project, oversized, heavylift cargoes to 0.015 million tonnes.
Handling of Ro-Ro cargo rose 22.6% to 0.101 million tonnes following increased import of vehicles delivered to the port by international ferry lines. The number vehicles was up 25% in Q1 2016 to 7,700 units thanks to growing export of Russian-made cars.
Grain shipments soared twofold to 0.048 million tonnes thanks to cargo flows from the CIS countries.
In the reporting period the stevedore company also was handling agri products, food, timber, containers, and other types of cargo.
General cargo volume also shrank by 6% and totaled 1.49 million tonnes. Loose and grab bulk dropped by 41% to 0.24 million tonnes. Exports flow through Seaport St.Pb reached 1.46 million tonnes (84% of Q1 throughput), imports totaled 0,27 million tonnes (16%).
JSC Sea Port St. Petersburg (part of UCL Port, a stevedoring division of the international transport group UCL Holding) is the largest stevedore handling all types of dry cargo in Big Port St. Petersburg. The stevedore operates modern multipurpose terminals for general and bulk cargoes, and dedicated Ro-Ro terminals.