Belarus, Cargo, Good for Business, Latvia, Logistics, Railways

Meanwhile, Berzins said that LDz is ready to receive these additional shipments and process them further in cooperation with ports and terminals.

Representatives from Belarus' oil industry have arrived in Latvia on a fact-finding mission to assess Latvia's port, terminal and rail infrastructure, who pointed out during today's meeting that Belarus is considering exporting more its products to northern Europe, and thus could use Latvian rail, port and terminal infrastructure for these purposes.

Latvia too is interested in cooperation with Belarus, and LDz is currently modernizing several rail lines with the aim of increasing the volume of cargo it can handle and ship to its ports, Berzins said.

''LDz and its rail infrastructure is ready to increase its cargo traffic with Belarus,'' the visiting oil industry representatives said.

According to the Ministry of Transport, cargo volumes via rail from Belarus reached EUR 30.2 mln tons last year, which was by 30% more than in 2017, including 7.3 mln tons of oil products, which was by 9.8% more than the previous year. Passenger traffic by rail also increased by 14% in 2018 to 28,100 passengers during the year.