Cargo, Latvia, Port, Transport

In the first nine months, Latvian ports mostly handled bulk cargo - 15.48 million tons, which is 41.4% less than in the same period last year.

This included 3.031 million tons of coal (77.7% decrease), 3.848 million tons of grain and grain products (3.2% up), 1.484 million tons of wood chips (8.1% increase), and 1.424 million tons of chemicals (17.6% decrease).

In the first nine months of 2020, Latvian ports also handled 8.8 million tons of liquid cargo, a 20.2% decrease year on year, including 8.311 million tons of oil products - 19.9% decrease.

In turn, general cargo turnover at Latvian ports in January-September amounted to 8.916 million tons, 8.9% less than in the corresponding period of 2019, including 3.479 million tons of container cargo (4.4% less than a year ago), 2.785 million tons of timber (15.5% less), and 2.299 million tons of roll-on/roll-off cargo (9.8% down).

Riga Port remains the leading port in Latvia with 17.598 million tons of cargo transshipped in January-September, 26.4% less than in the same period of 2019.

Ventspils Port's cargo turnover stood at 9.639 million tons, 41.9% down, while Liepaja Port's cargo turnover was 4.686 million tons - 11.8% less than in the first nine months of 2019.

Of the small Latvian ports, Skulte Port posted the largest cargo turnover, 729,000 tons, which is 6.1% less than in January-September last year. In total, Latvian small ports transshipped 1.273 million tons of cargo in the first nine months of this year, which is 10.2% less than in the same period in 2019.

In 2019, Latvian ports handled 62.379 million tons of cargo, which was by 5.7% less than in 2018.