Cargo, Latvia, Port, Transport

Bulk cargos, which dominated in the Latvian ports in January-May this year, fell 6.7% year-on-year to 14.701 million tons. Coal cargos contracted 12.6% to 7.852 million tons, chemical cargos were down 10% to 1.148 million tons and woodchip cargos dropped 5.1% to 692,500 tons.

Reloading of liquid cargos in the Latvian ports was down 23.9% to 6.788 million tons in January-May 2018. Oil products made up the largest part of the liquid cargos reloaded in the first five months of this year, falling 25.2% year-on-year to 6.417 million tons.

Handling of general cargos increased 22.1% year-on-year to 5.583 million tons in January-May 2018. Container cargos rose 9.5% to 2.034 million tons and roll on/roll off cargos grew 17.3% to 1.459 million tons. Timber was up 45.6% to 1.459 million tons.

Riga led other Latvian port by cargo turnover in January-May this year, having reloaded 14.705 million tons of cargo, which was 1.2% less than in the first five months of 2017. The port of Ventspils followed with 8.379 million tons of cargo reloaded in January-May 2018, down 22.2% year-on-year, and the port of Liepaja was third with 3.185 million tons of cargo, up 10.2% from January-May 2017.

Skulte led Latvia's small ports by cargo turnover in January-May 2018, as it reloaded 390,200 tons, up 7.8% year-on-year. Mersrags followed with 206,500 tons, up 7.8%, and Salacgriva was third with 168,000 tons at a 29.2% rise from the first five months of 2017.

All small Latvian ports together handled 802,800 tons of cargos in January-May this year, up 12.9% from the same period last year.

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