OREANDA-NEWS. October 15, 2009. The Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port Group (LSE: NCSP, RTS and MICEX: NMTP) reported its consolidated operational results for January – September 2009. In the period under review the NCSP Group cargo turnover volume amounted to 65,218.8 thousand tons, which is 8.1% or 4,883.0 thousand tons greater than during the same period of 2008.

During this period the total amount of cargoes that demonstrated a positive growth rate recorded an aggregate increase of 8,712.6 thousand tons, with 73.6% of this volume coming from additional volumes of grain, iron ore and ore concentrate, as well as oil products exported via the specialized terminal of OJSC IPP. The aggregate decrease of the cargoes that demonstrated negative dynamics stood at 3,829.7 thousand tons, with 84.0% of this decrease resulting from smaller volumes of handling imported cargoes – containers and cement.

The volume of grain handled during the period of January to September 2009 was 6,699.7 thousand tons, which represents an 88.8% increase as against the same period in 2008. The share of grain in the total cargo turnover of NCSP Group was 10.3% as against 5.9% in the first nine months of 2008.

The volume of diesel fuel handled at the OJSC IPP terminal during the first nine months of 2009 increased by 1,039.8 thousand tons, or 29.6% as compared to the same period last year, which shows that the new facilities of OJSC IPP put into operation at the end of 2008 are now working at full capacity. Therefore, based on the results of the nine months of the current year, the share of oil products in the overall cargo breakdown of the Group went up from 13.2% to 15.2%.

During the January-September 2009 period the iron ore cargo reached the volume of 2,267.2 thousand tons which accounted for 3.5% of the total NCSP Group cargo turnover.

The volumes of ferrous metals returned to the pre-crisis level; in the period under review the turnover of this type of cargo reached 6,654.8 thousand tons, which is 0.4% higher than the figure representing the nine months last year. Additionally, the volume of ferrous metals handled in September this year was 28.1% higher than that during the same period of 2008.

During the January to September 2009 period, the aggregate volumes of pig iron, seed oils, perishable cargo and mineral fertilizers grew by 118.6 thousand tons as against the January-September 2008 period.

According to the results of the nine months of 2009, the total volume of container cargo amounted to 172.3 thousand TEU; thus, the decrease as compared to the relevant volumes of last year is maintained so far at 38.7%.

The volumes of non-ferrous metals, cement, liquid mineral fertilizers, timber, scrap metal, sugar and other cargoes handled during the period under review decreased by a total of 1,516.4 thousand tons as against the same period of last year.