English
In the first six months of this year, a new record has been reached at the Freeport of Riga – 16.83 million tons of cargos of various types have been transshipped in half-year, which is by 15.4% more than in the accordant period of last year.
Andris Ameriks, Chairman of the Board of the Freeport of Riga Authority, is truly satisfied with the operation of stevedores, not denying contribution of the Freeport of Riga Authority in achieving of the result. “Seeing the speed in which the Riga Port develops and the growth dynamics of transported cargos, the issue regarding construction of new deep-water berths becomes more and more topical. It has been already reported that new deep-water berths will be built within the frameworks of the Project of Krievu Island, implementation of which should have already been started. Undoubtedly, it is the biggest and most voluminous investment project in the Freeport of Riga, but with implementation of smaller, but not less significant infrastructure projects, including construction of railway access roads, deepening of ship passes, capacity of the port is also being improved, and Riga becomes more and more attractive both for eastern and western cargo owners.”
The biggest increase of cargos can be observed in the segment of oil products – 4.3 million tons of these economically profitable cargos have been transshipped this year, which is by 45.2% more than in the first six months of last year. Provisional information shows that amount of transshipped oil products at the Riga Port will continue to increase also in future.
Increase of 5.8% can be observed in the segment of general cargos, where the biggest increase, as compared with previous period of account, is to container cargos – 18.6%. In total, 1.45 million tons of container cargos have been transshipped at the Riga Port this year.
Total increase of cargo turnover in bulk cargo segment is 8.6%. Transshipment of coal cargos has increased by 10.5%, and already is almost 6.5 million tons. Transport of artificial fertilizers has increased by 12.1%, and in numbers is 784 thousand tons. Ore transport has increased by 19%, systematic growth dynamics can be observed here, reaching 309 thousand tons in 6 months of the year. Ore is one of the groups that are transported with big vessels, and deep-water berths are required to load them. In percents, transport of food, fish, grain, cars, and equipment has decreased in this segment, but these cargo groups take a rather insignificant place in the general structure of cargos of the port and do not affect total development dynamics of the port.
Total number of passengers, as compared with the first half of 2010, has increased by 14.6%, or 370 726 passengers have been served at the Riga Port. Of them, almost 40 thousand are passengers of cruise ships. Ameriks notes: “Passengers of cruise ships on average spend much more than passengers of regular trips. Therefore big work has been done for attraction of these passengers, which now brings results. After deepening of shipping channel, which is currently being performed in the section near Vanšu Bridge, big passenger cruise ships will be able to enter our port more freely. I would like to remind that ship Costa Pacific with 3000 passengers will visit Riga repeatedly this month.”
