Good for Business, Lithuania, Port, Tourism, Transport

Photo: portofklaipeda.lt

In May alone, as compared with May of 2015, cargo volumes grew by 0.5% to 3.403 million tons. According to the press release, the May cargo traffic results is the best May result throughout the port's history – the earlier record of 3.38 million tons was set in May of 2015.

Loading of liquid cargo soared by 16.3% to 1.141 million tons in May year-on-year, while general cargo volumes increased by 19.5% to 1.024 million tons. Bulk cargo volumes fell by 20% to 1.238 million tons.

Some 2,844 ships arrived at the Klaipeda port this year, up by 7% year-on-year, the number of passengers fell by 9.1% to 80,400. In May, five cruise ships with 7,370 passengers aboard came to the port.

After raising the cargo volume by 7.2% to 15.6 million tons in the first five months of 2016, the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda expects an annual cargo record of over 40 million tons, the port's authority said. The port handled 38.5 million tons of cargo in 2015.

"We have posted very good results and we can make arithmetic calculations based on the volume – the annual result should be more than 40 million tons, which would be a new record. (...) We have three more terminals that do not operate at full capacity – the Klaipedos Smelte container terminal, the LNG terminal and the Klaipeda Central Terminal. New capacities do not yet yet work in full, which gives us hope that we will attract additional volumes to the terminals," Arturas Drungilas, marketing and administration director at the port's authority, told BNS Lithuania.

In his words, only the volumes of oil products and fertilizers may keep the port from setting a new cargo record.

"The two segments with higher risks are oil products and fertilizers, which include Belarusian products. However, we have secured a status of the most competitive port for Belarusian cargo, the risk is considerably lower. Loading of containers and ro-ro would be undermined in case of global problems," Drungilas said.