WASHINGTON: Bulk cargos, which dominated in Latvian ports in January-September this year, grew 14.1% year-on-year to 25.671 million tons. Handling of coal increased by 27.9% to 14.322 million tons, chemical cargos fell 12.9% to 2.128 million tons, and woodchip cargos rose 13.6% to 1.064 million tons. Reloading of liquid cargos fell 13.6% year-on-year to 13.438 million tons in January-September 2017, with oil products making up the largest amount, or 12.838 million tons, which was a 14.1% drop from the first nine months in 2016. The turnover of general cargos grew 9.2% year-on-year to 8.602 million tons in January-September 2017. These cargos included 3.402 million tons of container cargo, up 16.4%, 2.475 million tons of timber, down 3.3%, and 2.349 million tons of roll on/roll off cargo, up 13.7%.
Riga Freeport was the leading Latvian port by cargo turnover in January-September this year, having reloaded 25.491 million tons of cargo, which was 5.1% less than in the first nine months of 2016. The port of Ventspils followed with 16.222 million tons of cargo reloaded in January-September 2017, up 15.5% year-on-year, and the port of Liepaja was third with 4.754 million tons of cargo, up 22.8% from January-September 2016. Skulte led Latvia’s small ports by cargo turnover in January-September 2017, as it reloaded 676,600 tons at a 26% rise year-on-year. Mersrags followed with 319,700 tons, down 7.9%, and Salacgriva was third with 200,100 tons, down 8.9%. All small Latvian ports together handed 1.243 million tons of cargos in the first nine months of this year, up 8.9% from the respective period last year. In the first nine months of 2016, the Latvian ports reloaded 45.924 million tons of cargo.
