Cargo, Good for Business, Latvia, Markets and Companies, Port, Statistics

Bulk cargo, which dominated the port’s cargo structure in the first eight months of 2018, rose 8.9% year-on-year to 15.503 mln tons. Handling of general cargo increased 23.7% to 5.605 mln tons and reloading of liquid cargo was down 27.9% to 2.843 mln tons.

According to the port’s information, coal accounted for 39.7% (35% in 2017 and 35.9% in 2016) of all cargo reloaded in the first eight months of this year. Handling of coal quickened 13.6% year-on-year to 9.512 mln tons in January-August 2018.

Container cargo made up 12.6%, oil products 11.7%, timber 11% and chemical cargo 6% of all cargo reloaded in the first eight months of this year. Reloading of oil products at the port fell 27.6% year-on-year to 2.809 mln tons in the first eight months of this year.

The 3.067 mln tons of cargo reloaded in the Freeport of Riga in August included 2.049 mln tons of bulk cargo, 761,500 tons of general cargo and 256,200 tons of liquid cargo.

During the first eight months of 2017 the Freeport of Riga reloaded 22.716 mln tons of cargo.

According to the port, in the first eight months of 2018, Riga Port services a total of 626,011 passengers, which was 6.1% more when compared to the same period last year.

Furthermore, in the first eight months of the year, the port serviced a total of 67,493 cruise ship passengers, which was 9.2% less when compared to the same period last year.

At the moment, Estonian ferry company Tallink ensures a daily ferry between Riga and Stockholm.

As reported, passenger turnover at Riga Port reached 830,380 last year, which was by 42.8% more than the previous year.

Riga is the largest Latvian port by cargo turnover and also by the number of ship passengers.