Containers, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Lithuania, Port, Transport

“In fact, the terms of funding in the market are much better hence it’s been agreed in this case that refinancing will be provided by one bank and we’ll thus improve our funding terms,” Rimantas Juska, board chairman and CEO of Klaipedos Smelte, told BNS.

The new loan had been granted for a period of 10 years, SEB Bankas reported. The previous loan of 55 million euros had been granted by SEB Bankas and the EBRD, Juska said.

In 2015, Klaipedos Smelte launched a container distribution center, worth 73 million euros, in the port of Klaipeda.

According to Juska, in 2015, the company reloaded 2.7 million tons of cargo, down 7.6 percent from 2.923 million tons handled in 2014. Container reloading decreased by 7.8 percent to 162,000 TEUs.

“All those sagas with Russia’s sanctions, other bans on the transit of freight to Central Asia, had a substantial negative effect on the reloading of frozen products via the port of Klaipeda,” Klaipedos Smelte CEO told BNS.

The company hoped to at least maintain last year’s reloading level this year, he added.