Good for Business, Latvia, Port, Transport

Bulk cargos, which dominated in Latvian ports in January-October this year, grew 8.5% year-on-year to 27.947 million tons. Handling of coal increased by 17.9% to 15.158 million tons, chemical cargos fell 15.1% to 2.273 million tons, and woodchip cargos rose 18.3% to 1.206 million tons.

Reloading of liquid cargos fell 14.8% year-on-year to 14.45 million tons in January-October 2017, with oil products making up the largest amount, or 13.794 million tons, which was a 15.4% drop from the first ten months in 2016.

The turnover of general cargos grew 7.2% year-on-year to 9.615 million tons in January-October 2017. These cargos included 3.826 million tons of container cargo, up 14.5%, 2.709 million tons of timber, down 4.3%, and 2.66 million tons of roll on/roll off cargo, up 13.7%.

Riga was the leading Latvian port by cargo turnover in January-October this year, having reloaded 28.103 million tons of cargo, which was 7.6% less than in the first ten months of 2016. The port of Ventspils followed with 17.319 million tons of cargo reloaded in January-October 2017, up 12% year-on-year, and the port of Liepaja was third with 5.248 million tons of cargo, up 15.3% from January-October 2016.

Skulte led Latvia's small ports by cargo turnover in January-October 2017, as it reloaded 724,200 tons at a 20.2% rise year-on-year. Mersrags followed with 341,800 tons, down 11.1%, and Salacgriva was third with 227,200 tons, down 5.1%.

All small Latvian ports together handed 1.34 million tons of cargos in the first ten months of this year, up 6.1% from the respective period last year.

In the first ten months of 2016, the Latvian ports reloaded 51.693 million tons of cargo.