Over the first nine months of 2019, vessels of North-Western Shipping Company carried 3.7 million tonnes of cargo, which is flat, year-on-year, the company says in a press release.
In the reporting period, the company carried 1.2 million tonnes of grain, 0.7 million tonnes of ferrous metal, 0.45 million tonnes of chemical and mineral fertilizers, 0.37 million tonnes of timber, 0.23 million tonnes of coal and 0.26 million tonnes of non-ferrous metal.
Export cargo, about 2.7 million tonnes, made the bulk of shipments – 73.6% of the total volume. Most of export cargo was formed by grain, timber, ferrous and non-ferrous metal, coal, chemical and mineral fertilizers. Some segments saw the growth: transportation of non-ferrous metal doubled to 0.2 million tonnes with the increased number of voyages from the port of Saint-Petersburg and southern ports of Russia, transportation of ferrous metal grew to 0.62 million tonnes (+15%) driven by shipment of slabs from the port of Novorossiysk.
Transportation between foreign ports remained flat, year-on-year, at 0.9 million tonnes (24.2% of the total volume). The result should be attributed to transportation of chemical and mineral fertilizers (+25.4% to 0.26 million tonnes) from Riga and Klaipeda to the Polish ports of Szczecin, Police and Gdansk as well as to 42-pct growth of paperwood transportation from the ports of Latvia and Estonia to the ports of Sweden and transportation of sawn timber from Riga to the Great Britain.
In the reporting period, imports accounted for 1.1% of the total volume with domestic shipments accounting for 1.1%.
New vessels of NWSC – 10 vessels of Project DCV36 (lead ship – “Amethyst”) and 7 vessels of Project RSD49 “Neva-Leader” – carried over 1.2 million tonnes of cargo (33% of the total volume).
North-Western Shipping Company PJSC, is the largest carrier in the Russian system of waterways, specializing in export/import shipping of bulk, general and project cargoes, towage of oversized cargo and crafts. The company operates a fleet of 47 river-sea vessels, 10 sea going vessels and 3 river-sea Ro-Ro barges. Total deadweight of the Company's fleet is 288,000 tonnes. About 60% of the fleet was built between 2002 and 2013. Average age of the company’s fleet is 18.5 y.o. The company transports about 5 million tonnes of cargo per year.