Belarus, Cargo, Lithuania, Logistics, Port, Transport

International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 06:45

Decline in Klaipeda port's cargo traffic not due to Belarus' fertilizers - BKT CEO

BC, Vilnius, 10.01.2020.Print version
Last year's decline in Klaipeda's total cargo throughput was due to container traffic, not to Belarus' fertilizer exports via the Lithuanian seaport, the chief executive officer of Biriu Kroviniu Terminalas (Bulk Cargo Terminal, or BKT) said LETA/BNS.

BKT is the only Klaipeda port operator handling products of Belarus' potash fertilizer manufacturer Belaruskali.  


"The statement (by Klaipeda port officials) is incorrect, because it was not the flow of fertilizers that caused the decrease in throughput. To my knowledge, the slight decrease in the port's overall cargo volumes was due to container handling," Vidmantas Dambrauskas told. 


The CEO of BKT doubts that Klaipeda will ever be able to break the all-time throughput record it set in 2018. 


Port operators "said five years ago that 2018 would be a peak year, and we are unlikely to achieve such a result again, which is only natural," he said.  


Arturas Drungilas, the port's marketing director, has told recently that annual cargo traffic via Klaipeda edged down in 2019 compared with 2018 because of a decline in Belarus' fertilizer exports to Asia and a decrease in oil product loadings.

 

 "The result was due to the expiration of  Belaruskali's contracts with India and China in the second half of the year," he said earlier this week. 


The port official said that Belaruskali had already signed a contract with India, but still had no contract with China. 


Dambrauskas said, however, that the Belarusian fertilizer manufacturer "has all contracts with all its traditional buyers".


"I'm tired of commenting on this nonsense. How does Drungilas know whether Belaruskali has a contract or not? He doesn't know or understand anything about this. It's not true (...)," he said. 


In response to the criticism, Drungilas said his comment was based on statistics.  

"BKT works directly with Belaruskali. I can't object to what they say. I see the figures and I say what that the statistics show me," he told . 






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