WASHINGTON: In the first five months of 2016, Latvian ports reloaded 27.409 million tons of cargo, down 14% from the same period a year ago, the Latvian Transport Ministry reported LETA. Bulk cargoes prevailed among cargoes handled by the Latvian ports in January-May 2016, accounting for 13.097 million tons and dropping 14% from the first five months 2015.
Coal accounted for 6.627 million tons of all bulk cargoes handled in said period, down 25.6% year-on-year, chemical bulk cargoes rose 1.3% to 1.375 million tons, and woodchip cargoes surged 45.2% to 552,900 tons. Handling of liquid cargoes fell 21.1% year-on-year to 9.985 million tons in the first five months of 2016, with oil products prevailing among liquid cargoes and dropping 21.6% to 9.624 million tons. Crude oil handling at the Latvian ports shrank 2.4 times from January-May 2015 to 24,100 tons.
General cargoes dropped 6% year-on-year to 4.327 million tons in January-May this year. This amount included 1.639 million tons of container cargoes, down 0.8%, 1.39 million tons of timber, down 12.5%, and 1.134 million tons of roll on/roll off cargoes, down 0.1%.
Riga led other Latvian ports by cargo turnover in the first five months of this year, having handled 15.507 million tons, which was 10% less than in the same period in 2015. The northwestern Latvian port of Ventspils came second with 8.956 million tons reloaded in January-May 2016, down 24% year-on-year, and Liepaja in southwestern Latvia was third with 2.319 million tons, up 2.3 year-on-year. The Latvian ports handled 31.878 million tons of cargo in the first five months of 2015 and 69.569 million tons in the full 2015, which was 6.2% less than a year before.
