Containers, Good for Business, Investments, Lithuania, Port

The money will be spent on two large and ten smaller cranes, as well as on the expansion of the company's infrastructure, the bank said. Besides the loan, the company will also invest its own funds.

Rimantas Juska, CEP at Klaipedos Smelte, says Mediterranean Shipping Company, the second-largest container company in the world, is expanding its business via the Klaipedos Smelte's container distribution center in the Baltic Sea region, and this investment will serve that purpose.

Vilius Juzikis, head of the corporate banking division at SEB, says around 9-10 mln TEU are handled in the Baltic Sea every year on average, making around 9 percent of the total container volumes in Europe. Following this investment, Klaipedos Smelte's annual capacity will exceed 1 mln TEU.

"The Seaport of Klaipeda has posted one of the fastest growth rates over the past decade as handling volumes jumped over 40%  of this period, from 30 to 43 mln tons a year," Juzikis said.