Baltic Association – Transport and Logisics President Inga Antane describes the situation with Latvia’s transit industry as tragic. Cargo volume decline has been continuing since 2012. Antane also mentions that, looking at the recent past, 2016 was one of the worst in Latvia’s transit history.
It should be added that from April onward there was rapid decline. Only 15% of cargo volumes previously coordinated with Russian Railway passed in transit in August. Latvia’s losses are estimated at around 1 million tons. Industry experts have told Antane that such indexes were noted for the last time at the end of the 1990s.
“Our colleagues in Germany made a very important decision this summer – they improved the competitiveness of their railway and reduced tariffs. As far as I know, the current tariff may be around EUR 1.5 per km. While we are busy increasing our tariffs, elsewhere in Europe tariffs are being reduced,” says Antane.
She also notes that the price is very important for cargo owners. They decide where to divert cargoes based on the offered price.
When answering a question about claims on one side, saying that everything was fine with cargo volumes, and industry representative’s claims that the situation with Latvia’s transit industry was tragic, Antane explained that there was a tight connection with statistics, because the first three months were previously declared very positive by the expert. Because of that, the situation is not as bad statistically speaking, said Antane.
“Still, if we look at the best month, which was March, and compare with the current situation, we will see that the cargo decline has been more than 40%,” Antane said. (BNN/Business World Magazine)
