Handling of containerized cargo rose by 13.4%
The Freeport of Riga continues to increase its cargo turnover, reaching 13.2 million tons in the 7 months of this year, which is by 13.1% or 1.52 million tons more than in 2021 during the same period, according to the port’s press release. The positive cargo dynamics is based on a volume increase in the energy resource cargo segment, as well as a significant volume increase in the container cargo segment. In 7 months of this year, 2.75 million tons of containerized cargo were handled in the port of Riga, which is by 13.4% more compared to the same period last year.
“The port of Riga continues to work in a sustained way, we are preparing for the new grain harvest and, accordingly, the agricultural cargo volume growth in the month of August. Of course, we are also pleased with the growing number of cruise ships calling the port of Riga – we have just welcomed and honored the 10 millionth passenger. At the same time, we are actively working on attracting cargo from other segments – last month we signed a cooperation agreement with the port of Gdynia. The world’s leading mineral fertilizer producer and distributor Yara has just opened a packaging and storage warehouse at “Riga Nordic Terminal”, so we are looking forward to the near future with cautious optimism,” said Ansis Zeltiņš, the Freeport of Riga CEO.
In total, 1.84 million tons of various cargo were handled in the port of Riga in July 2022, which is slightly – by 2.6% or 48.6 thousand – lower volume than the one handled in the previous month, but by a quarter (24%) or 0.35 million tons higher than the indicators of July 2021.
In the past month, the amount of handled coal decreased (0.24 million tons) compared to the last few months, however, coal is still both received and dispatched, and coal transportation continues in the first days of August. On the other hand, compared to June, the turnover of forestry cargo has increased, reaching 0.49 million tons, which is mainly related to larger shipments of pellets – in July, 0.18 million tons of pellets were handled at the port, which is the highest monthly figure this year, including 5 large capacity vessels with 25-31 thousand tons of pellets served at the port; in July, the volume of timber general cargo also slightly increased (0.26 million tons), but less wood chips and shavings were handled.
The flow of container cargo in July remained stable (0.39 million tons), slightly ahead of both the June volume (+5%) and last year’s July volume (+7%). In July, the amount of ore handled at the port also increased, reaching 0.24 million tons, – if until now ore was traditionally delivered to the port by ships, then in July, out of 5 ore carrying vessels, two arrived with manganese ore, while three left the port with iron ore briquettes on board.
In the 7 months of 2022, the most important cargo in terms of volume was forestry cargo – a total of 3.31 million tons were handled in the port of Riga, making up 25% of the total amount of cargo handled in the port, followed by container cargo (21% or 2.75 million tons) and coal (20% or 2.67 million tons). Agricultural products constitute a significant amount of cargo in the total cargo portfolio, reaching 9% or 1.23 million tons, which is less than last year, but it should be noted that the shipment of this year’s crop will begin only in the month of August.
In the 7 months of 2022, an increase was registered in ore cargo (0.59 million tons; +82.8%), at the same time, volumes of both scrap metal (-45%) and metal products (-73%) decreased. In the seven months, the volume of received stone chippings has increased (+11%), while the transshipment volume decreased in the segments of oil products (-28%) and chemical bulk cargo (-51%), which can be directly related to the impact of international sanctions against Russia and Belarus.
In July, a total of 270 vessels left the port, which is the largest number of ships served per month this year. 30 cruise ships called the port, which is the largest number of cruise ships served per month in the history of the port.
Cargo turnover in Freeport of Riga in H1’2022 increased by 11.5% YoY
Port of Riga plans to handle additional five million tons of coal this year in cooperation with the port of Gdynia
