MOSCOW: Ports in the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are feeling the effects of Russia’s economic slowdown as they serve largely as transshipment locations into Russia.
Container traffic at seaports in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia fell 14 percent in the first half of the year on a year-year-basis to 541,010 twenty-foot-equivalent units, according to statistics compiled from the ports’ press offices.
Ports in the Baltic States continue to remain the main transshipment points for Russian container cargo, according to data from Portnews, one of Russia’s leading maritime analysts.
This is reflected by first-half statistics showing that 94,500 TEUs imported by Russia were first handled through ports in the Baltic states. This is a significant figure when taking into account that traffic through Russia’s Black Sea ports of St. Petersburg and Ust-Luga amounted to about 410,000 TEUs in the same period.
Containers bound for Russia made up 80 percent of Tallinn’s total containerized trade, 65 percent of Klaipeda’s and 60 percent of Riga’s.
As such, Estonia’s Tallinn seaport was hardest hit, with traffic falling 22.4 percent to 119,930 TEUs, while Lithuania’s Klaipeda seaport saw traffic fall 17 percent to 209,930 TEUs and Latvia’s Riga seaport was down 4.2 percent to 208,950 TEUs.
In 2014, the overall container traffic of the Baltic nations’ seaports amounted to 1.1 million TEUs, including 450,400 TEUs at Klaipeda, 387,600 TEUs at Riga and 260,300 TEUs at Tallinn.
Shipping activity at Port Qasim on February 11
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