Russian container terminal operator Global Ports saw a 31% drop in container volumes hit by sanctions and the country’s economic woes.
Global Ports said that against a backdrop of macroeconomic slowdown and a sharp devaluation of the Rouble container throughput at its terminals fell 31% in 2015 to 1.83million TEU. Global Ports operates five container terminals in Russia and two in Finland.
It five terminals in Russia reported falls in container volumes in 2015 compared to 2014 varying from 17% to 42.8%. By contrast its two Finnish terminals saw 8.6% throughput growth.
The company reported a net loss of $33.7m for 2015, compared to a $197.3million in the previous year.
“The macro-economic backdrop in Russia continues to be challenging and the container market has inevitably felt the effects of this. In 2015 we tried to mitigate as much as possible the macro impact on our company’s performance while still preserving our undoubted long-term potential,” said Vladislav Baumgertner, ceo of Global Ports Management.
The outlook for 2016 was not any brighter. “We fully expect 2016 to be another challenging year. So far we have seen no signs of a market recovery and at the same time competition in our industry is intensifying,” he added.
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