In January 2018, all Latvian ports together handled 5.02 million tons of cargo, down 22.1% from the same period a year ago, according to information released by the country’s Transport Ministry.
Bulk cargos, which dominated the Latvian ports in January this year, fell 23.1% to 2.577 million tons. Coal cargos contracted 40.1% to 1.143 million tons, chemical cargos rose 8.3% to 230,800 and woodchip cargos dropped 26.5% to 111,900 tons
Reloading of liquid cargos in the Latvian ports was down 35.8% to 1.435 million tons in January 2018. Oil products made up the largest part of the liquid cargos reloaded in January, falling 36.9% year-on-year to 1.362 million tons.
Handling of general cargos, meanwhile, increased 17.2% to 1.008 million tons. Container cargos rose 4.5% to 396,200 tons and roll on/roll off cargos grew 18.8% to 283,600 tons. Timber was up 35.7% to 276,100 tons.
Riga led other Latvian port by cargo turnover in January this year, having reloaded 2.77 million tons of cargo, which was 13.5% less than in the month of 2017. The port of Ventspils followed with 1.477 million tons of cargo reloaded in January 2018, down 42% year-on-year, and the port of Liepaja was third with 643,000 tons of cargo, up 9.6% from January 2017.
Skulte led Latvia’s small ports by cargo turnover in January 2018, as it reloaded 66,600 tons at a 19.1% rise year-on-year. Salacgriva followed with 26,700 tons, up 32.8%, and Mersrags was third with 25,400 tons, down 7.3%.
All small Latvian ports together handled 129,700 tons of cargos in January of this year, up 19.9% from the respective period last year.
In 2017, the Latvian ports reloaded 61.877 million tons of cargo, down 2% from 2016.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.