Russian seaport throughput rises 1.4% between January to September

Total cargo traffic at Russian ports between January to September, 2011 increased by 1.4% year-on-year, to 399 million tons, the Association of Sea Commercial Ports said.

Dry cargo shipments rose 8.4 percent from last year’s figures to 171.8 million tons, including 59.4 million tons of exported coal (a 16.1 percent growth), containerized cargo - 29.3 million tons (+22.2%), ore cargo - 6.2 million tons (an increase of 1.5 times), unitized cargo -4.4 million tons (+1.6 times), refrigerated cargoes -3 4 million tons (+22.5%), nonferrous metals - 3.1 million tons (+2.7%), scrap -2.7 million tons (+34.9%), sugar - 2.1 million tons (+17.6%).The volume of ferrous metals declined by 14.5% to 18.4 million tons, handling of mineral fertilizers fell by 2.6% to 9.3 million tons, ferry cargoes - down 1.5% to 5.4 million tons, and timber cargo - by 11% to 4.6 million tons.

The nine-month volume of liquid bulk cargo totaled 227.2 million tons (-3.4%), including exported crude oil -146. 2 million tons (-6.7%), petroleum products - 79.8 million tons (+3.2%).

In the reporting period, exports were down 0.4 percent from a year earlier, to 303.5 million tons, while imports grew by 24.9 percent, to 34.1 million tons, transit cargo volume rose 10.9% to 37.7 million tons, and short sea traffic volume was down 14.6 percent to 23.6 million tons.

Stevedores of the Arctic Basin ports handled between January to September, 31.9 million tons of cargo, 18.5% below last year’s numbers. Dry cargo totaled 16.6 million tons (+9.6%). Exports of liquid bulk cargo shrank by 36.2 percent to15.3 million tons, primarily in the ports of Murmansk (-44.4%) and Varandey (-44.4%). Cargo throughput of the port of Arkhangelsk rose by 20.4%.

The Baltic Sea ports’ operators handled 138.4 million tons, up 5.3% year-over-year, including dry bulk - 53.1 million tons (+15%), liquid bulk cargo - 85.3 million tons (on a par with last year’s results). The stevedoring companies at Big Port St. Petersburg handled 44.9 million tons (+5.4%), at the port of Ust-Luga – 15.7 million, up 1.9 times from a year earlier. Cargo traffic at the ports of Primorsk fell by 2.7%, at Vysotsk – by 9.4%, at Kaliningrad – by 1.2%, at Vyborg port - by 5.5%.

Between January to September, throughput of the Black Sea ports fell to 127.1 million tons (-0.7%). The volume of dry bulk rose to 44.8 million tons (+0.2%), liquid bulk cargo - fell 1.2% to 82.3 million tons. Handling of cargo at the port of Novorossiysk declined by 3% to 86.7 million tons, at the port of Kavkaz – by 19.5% to 6.2 million tons. Port of Azov reported an 8.9 percent volume drop year-on-year to 3.3 million tons, Yeysk port throughput was down 2.5% to 2.7 million tons.

Transshipments at the port of Rostov increased by 20.1% to 7.1 million tons, at Taganrog port - by 23.1% to 2.6 million tons. Port of Temryuk demonstrated a 34.4 percent gain from last year’s figure to 1.9 million tons. Port of Tuapse handled 14.1 million tons of cargo (+0.9%).

The Caspian Basin’s ports handled 7.4 million tons of cargoes (-5.1%), including 3.8 million tons of dry cargo (- 15.9%), 3.6 million tons of liquid bulk cargo (+9.7%). Cargo traffic at the port of Makhachkala grew by 9.9% to 3.9 million tons. Freight volume handled at the port of Astrakhan decreased by 12.9% to 3.1 million tons.

Seaports of the Pacific Basin handled 94.1 million tons (+8%). The nine-month volume includes 53.5 million tons (+11.6%) of dry cargo and 40.6 million tons (+3.6%) of liquid bulk cargo. Vostochny Port’s cargo throughput (including Kozmino Oil Terminal’s statistics) rose by 11.3% to 29.3 million tons, Port of Vanino handled 14.4 million tons, up 11.2% over the same period of 2010, Vladivostok port’s throughput rose 3.7% to 8.8 million tons, freight traffic at De Kastri port totaled 6.2 million tons, a 25% gain. Imports and exports passing through the port of Posiet rose by 23% to 4.1 million tons. Throughput of the port of Prigorodnoye fell by 0.6% to 11.9 million tons, of the port of Nakhodka – by 7.5% to 11.1 million tons. <Korea Shipping Gazette>