Good for Business, Latvia, Port, Transport

Bulk cargos, which dominated in Latvian ports in January-August this year, grew 16.3% year-on-year to 23.055 million tons. Handling of coal increased by 30.3% to 12.97 million tons, chemical cargos fell 11.5% to 1.917 million tons, and woodchip cargos rose 14.4% to 973,900 tons.

Reloading of liquid cargos fell 13.3% year-on-year to 12.385 million tons in January-August 2017, with oil products making up the largest amount, or 11.849 million tons, which was a 13.7% drop from the first eight months in 2016.

The turnover of general cargos grew 8.9% year-on-year to 7.618 million tons in January-August 2017. These cargos included 2.973 million tons of container cargo, up 14%, 2.247 million tons of timber, down 2%, and 2.063 million tons of roll on/roll off cargo, up 13.3%.

Riga was the leading Latvian port by cargo turnover in January-August this year, having reloaded 22.711 million tons of cargo, which was 4.9% less than in the first eight months of 2016. The port of Ventspils followed with 15.064 million tons of cargo reloaded in January-August 2017, up 17.2% year-on-year, and the port of Liepaja was third with 4.17 million tons of cargo, up 24.4% from January-August 2016.

Skulte led Latvia's small ports by cargo turnover in January-August 2017, as it reloaded 599,500 tons at a 27.8% rise year-on-year. Mersrags followed with 295,600 tons, down 9.4%, and Salacgriva was third with 175,800 tons, down 12.3%.

All small Latvian ports together handed 1.111 million tons of cargos in the first eight months of this year, up 7.8% from the respective period last year.

In the first eight months of 2016, the Latvian ports reloaded 41.104 million tons of cargo.