Freight volume handled in the Port of Liepaja in January-August declined by 0.4% YoY, to 3,353,000 tons, the Port Authority reported.
In the reporting period grain shipments rose by 5.3% to 1,572,600 tons, construction materials dropped by 16.7% to 329,200 tons, timber was down by 37.8% to 227,900 tons, crude oil – up by 9.2% to 36,400 tons, oil products – up by 3.9% to 180,600 tons.
Container traffic shrank by 37% to 1,352 TEUs. Ro-Ro cargo fell by 14% to 21,000 units. Passenger traffic decreased by 20% to 23,422 people.
The number of ship calls was down by 4% YoY to 863 units.
Port of Liepaja was founded in the 1990s 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 Belarus. In 2015, throughput of Liepaja port was 5.61 million tons. (Portnews/Business World Magazine)