Cargo, Estonia, Port, Transport

In the fourth quarter of 2019, 5.6 mln tons of cargo and 2.3 mln passengers passed through the harbors of Tallinna Sadam. Compared to the same period of previous year, the cargo volume increased by 12.3% mainly due to liquid bulk. The passenger volume increased by 1.2% and the number of ship calls grew by 2.8% to 1,893 calls, Tallinna Sadam told the stock exchange.

In 2019, the annual cargo volume of Tallinna Sadam totaled 19.9 mln tons, decreasing by 3.3% compared to the previous year, mainly due to decrease of the liquid bulk volume in the third quarter, which, on the other hand, was balanced by growth in dry bulk.

The number of passengers increased by 0.2 percent year-on-year, reaching a record of 10.64 mln passengers. The growth was driven by passenger traffic between Estonia and Finland on the Tallinn-Helsinki and Muuga-Vuosaari routes and was also supported by another annual record of 660,000 cruise passengers.

According to Tallinna Sadam CEO Valdo Kalm, it is positive that the strong growth in liquid bulk in the fourth quarter, which was caused by increased demand for storage and blending of dark petroleum products due to International Maritime Organization's (IMO) requirements for marine fuels effective from the beginning of 2020, helped to significantly reduce the drop in annual cargo volume compared to the result for the first nine months. At the same time, liquid cargo business remains volatile and growth in the fourth quarter should not be interpreted as a continuing trend. The y-o-y decrease in liquid cargo was also compensated by the growth of dry bulk, mainly due to the export of Estonian grain and the import of crushed stone.

"For the number of passengers, we reached a record for the 12th consecutive year, thanks to recovery of passenger traffic between Estonia and Finland, which was also strongly supported by the addition of servicing passengers with vehicles and the addition of a new ship on the Muuga-Vuosaari route. In the cruise business, we have once again achieved a record and Tallinn remains one of the most attractive cruise destinations in Europe," Kalm noted.