Throughput of Riga port is likely to fall by 5-7% in 2009 - expert

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Jan 2009

In 2009, throughput of Riga port is likely to fall by 5-7%, that of Liepaja – by 10-20%, Ventspils – by 10%, RZD-Partner cites Georg Lansmanis – Advisor to the Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Latvia. According to Mr. Lansmanis, transport structures and branches of the country should consolidate their efforts to withstand the competition during the period of the economic crisis. “Everybody is looking for new possibilities for businessdevelopment. As Russian ports develop we will loose part of cargo flow so we have to find new opportunities for our ports and railways – for example, to develop cooperation with the West ad to facilitate cargo flows at East-West corridor. – the export thinks.
According to him, the state should provide more support to its ports and companies should invest in transport infrastructure. For example, Lansmanis draws attention to Latvian Railway which plans to invest $200 million in development this year.
According to Central Statistics Administration, the ports Port Fleet Latvia handled 63.6 million tonnes of cargo in 2008 (+1.9%, year-on-year). Throughput of Ventspils port fell by 8%, year-on-year, to 28.6 million tonnes, that of Riga port climbed by 14% to 29.5 million tonnes, Liepaja – 4.2 million tonnes (+3.7%) Throughput of smaller ports of Latvia amounted to 1.3 million tonnes (-7%).

Source: Portnews