Freight volume handled in the Port of Liepaja, Latvia between in January and April 2016 increased by 3.1% year-on-year and totaled 1,892,100 tonnes, the Port Authority said.
In the reporting period grain shipments rose by 8.6% to 995,300 tonnes, while handling of building materials fell by 3.7% to 164,200 tonnes and timber cargo dropped by 33.7% to 140,600 tonnes. Crude oil transshipment rose 10.2% to 20,600 tonnes and petroleum products volume jumped by 38.6% to 91,600 tonnes.
Container traffic shrank by 1.7 times to 605 TEUs. Ro-Ro cargo increased by 4% to 10,318 units. Passenger traffic decreased by 17% to 9,760 people.
The number of ship calls was up 2% from the same period of 2015 to 466 units.
Port of Liepaja was founded in the 90s of last century at the former Soviet Union’s naval base. Liepaja ranks third port of Latvia by handled cargo volume. Half of the port’s cargo throughput is fueled by crude oil and bulk cargoes imported from the CIS countries, largely from Belorussia. In 2015, throughput of Liepaja port was 5.61 million tonnes.