Cargo, Containers, Good for Business, Latvia, Port, Transport

Bulk cargos, which dominated in the Latvian ports in January-October this year, rose 6.4% year-on-year to 30.899 mln tons. Coal cargos grew 10.1% to 16.692 mln tons, chemical bulk cargos were down 2.5% to 2.216 mln tons and woodchip cargos rose 4.3% to 1.257 mln tons.

Reloading of liquid cargos in the Latvian ports was down 10.6% to 12.921 mln tons in January-October 2018. Oil products made up the largest part of the liquid cargos reloaded in the first ten months of this year, falling 11.6% year-on-year to 12.194 mln tons.

Handling of general cargos increased 19.7% year-on-year to 11.513 mln tons in January-October 2018. Container cargos rose 6.9% to 4.091 mln tons and timber was up 47.2% to 2.961 mln tons. Roll on/roll off cargos grew 11.3% to 2.645 mln tons.

Riga led other Latvian port by cargo turnover in January-October this year, having reloaded 29.917 mln tons of cargo, which was 6.5% more than in the first ten months of 2017. The port of Ventspils followed with 16.961 mln tons of cargo reloaded in January-October 2018, down 2.1% year-on-year, and the port of Liepaja was third with 6.246 mln tons of cargo, up 19% against the first ten months of 2017.

Skulte led Latvia's small ports by cargo turnover in January-October 2018, as it reloaded 807,200 tons, up 11.5% year-on-year. Mersrags followed with 363,000 tons, up 6.2%, and Salacgriva was third with 300,500 tons at a 32.3% rise from the first ten months of 2017.

The small Latvian ports together handled 1.536 mln tons of cargos in January-October this year, up 14.6% from the same period last year.

In 2017, the Latvian ports reloaded 61.877 mln tons of cargo, down 2% from 2016.