OREANDA-NEWS. January 14, 2010. Freight turnover at the ports of Latvia in 2009 fell by 2,6% compared with the previous year - to 61.98 million tons, including a nearly 7% drop (1.234 million tons) in cargo handling at the small ports of the country, Ministry of Communications said.

The volume of transshipment of bulk cargo in Latvian ports in 2009 was reported at 29.097 million tones, 3.9% below last year's figure, while liquid bulk cargo turnover rose to 24.602 million tons (+1.7%), general cargoes fell 9.8%, to 8.28 million tons.

According to earlier reports, last year the port of Tallinn handled 31.6 million tons of cargoes, a 8.7% rise over 2008 figures. Liepaja port throughput increased by 4.6% - to 4.4 million tons, at the Port of Riga freight turnover was 29.7 million tons (+0.5%). Commodities transshipped via Klaipeda port in 2009 amounted 27.9 million tons, a 6.7% drop. The volume of transit freight transported in 2009, by Latvian Railways (LDz) via the ports of the country increased by 2.9% in year-over-year figures - up to 45.12 million tons (76% of all goods in transit).