According to information released by the Ministry of transport of Latvia, in the first four months of 2018 all Latvian ports together handled 21,556 million tons of cargo, up 12.1% compared with the same period in 2017, according to the Latvian news Agency LETA.

Transhipment of bulk cargo, which dominated in the Latvian ports in January-April this year, fell by 13.3% yoy to the level of 11,604 million tons. Transshipment of coal and is contracted by 21.4% to 6,143 million tons, while transshipment of chemical cargoes has decreased by 12.5% and amounted to 924,700 tons. The volume of transshipment of sawn timber and wood chips also decreased by 10.6% to 574,300 tons.

Declined significantly in January-April 2018 and the volume of transportation of liquid cargoes in Latvian ports fell by 26.5% to reach 5,526 million tons. Most of these goods still account for petroleum products, however, their volume of turnover of goods of ports of Latvia has decreased by 27.9% yoy and amounted to 5,227 million tons.

Transshipment of General cargo in the Latvian ports in the first four months of 2018, on the contrary, increased by 22% year on year to 4,427 million tons. Container traffic also increased by 9.5%, to 1,647 million tonnes, while transshipment of Ro-Ro cargo increased by 19.3% to reach 1,161 million tons. Transportation of timber has also increased by 44.5% and amounted to 1,441 million tons.

The rating of the Latvian ports cargo turnover for the period continues to be led by Riga, overloading 11,449 million tons of cargo, but this is by 6.3% less than in the first four months of 2017. The Freeport of Ventspils in January-April 2018 passed 6,878 million tons of cargo, which is already at 27.2% less than last year. And third place went to Liepaja with 2,609 million tons of cargo and increase in turnover by 14.2% compared to the same period last year.

For the most part in positive territory remain small Latvian ports. So, from January to April 2018 Skulte passed 290,200 tons of cargo, with the result that its turnover rose 0.1% year on year. This is followed by the Mersrags, has exceeded the same period 149,800 tons of cargo, which is 3.8% less than last year. And in third place was the salacgrīva with 148,200 tons and cargo turnover growth at 45.6%.

Just a small Latvian ports in the period from January to April 2018 was handled 620,6 thousand tons of cargoes, that is by 8.4% more compared to the same period last year.

Overall, however, the trend of falling turnover of Latvian ports remains stable. Recall that in 2017, the Latvian ports handled 61,877 million tons of cargo, which is 2% less than 2016.