OREANDA-NEWS. November 12, 2010. Freight volume handled by Russian seaports in ten recent months of 2010 increased by 6.8% compared with the same period last year to 440.4 million tons, the Association of Sea Commercial Ports (ASOP) said.

During the period the Russian ports generated strong results in almost all segments of handled cargo: ten-month volume of dry cargoes rose by 7.6% from a year earlier to 177.24 million tons, including: coal - 57.72 million tons (plus 4.8%), containerized cargo - 27.07 million tons (plus 31.7%), mineral fertilizers - 10.65 million tons (plus 28.1%), ferries freight - 6.12 million tons (plus 1.5%), forest - 5.62 million tons (10.7%), packaged and break bulk - 3.75 million tons (up 1,8 times), scrap metal – 2.33 million tons (plus 3.1%) and sugar - 1.88 million tons (plus 31,4%).

Liquid bulk volume totaled 263.16 million tons (plus 6.3%), including: crude oil - 175.18 million tons (plus 4.2%), petroleum products - 86.59 million tons (plus 11.2% ).

Exports volume transshipped at Russian ports in Jan-Oct. increased by 6.4% to 340.25 million tons, imports flows surged 40% from the same period a year earlier, to 31.25 million tons, transit goods declined to 37.49 million tons (-0.7%), coastal traffic to 31.41 million tons (-3.8%).

Operators of marine terminals of Northwestern Basin handled 190.97 million tons of cargo, a 2.9% increase over the 10 months of last year. The volume of dry cargoes in the region amounted to 68.53 million tons (plus 10.5%), liquid bulk cargo – 122,440,000 tons (-0.9%). Big Port of St. Petersburg’s throughput was up 15.3%  to 48.3 million tons, of the port of Kaliningrad – rose by 15.6%, to 11.62 million tons, the port of Ust-Luga – by 17.7%, to 9.68 million tons, the port of Varandei - by 6.2%, to 6.44 million tons and the port of Arkhangelsk - by 14.5%, to 3.14 million tons.

The South Basin seaports’ ten-month throughput totaled 150.79 million tons (plus 0.4%), including dry cargo - 54,110,000 tons (plus 1.1%), liquid bulk cargo - 96.67 million tons (level with last year's figures). Operators of marine terminals of Tuapse port handled 15.59 million tons (plus 1.1%), of Port Kavkaz - 8.48 million tons (plus 19.9%), of the port of Rostov - 6.44 million tons (plus 22.9%) , at the port of Astrakhan - 3.97 million tons (plus 27.3%). Novorossiysk Port’s freight turnover fell 3.2% to 98.79 million tons.

Far Eastern ports reported a 28.9-percent gain in handled volume to 98.65 million tons, including 54.60 million tons (plus 10.8%) of dry cargo and 44.05 million tons of liquid bulk cargo (up 1.6 times). Cargo turnover of the port of Vanino rose by 5.5% to 20.77 million tons, of Vladivostok - by 12.5%, to 14.69 million tons. Total throughput of stevedoring companies of Vostochny Port jumped by 1.9 times to 29.77 million tons thanks to crude oil volume transshipped at Kozmino Oil Terminal ports, of Sakhalin Port – 1.5 times as much, to 16.88 million tons due to the launch of an oil and gas handling complex at Prigorodnoye.

Association of Commercial Sea Ports (ASOP) was founded in 1987. Currently ASSOP unites more than 50 Russian organizations and enterprises of maritime transport. The Association includes commercial sea ports, forwarding and agency companies, research institutes and maritime transport schools. The outcome data of the Russian port complex is based on statistical reports, covering all stevedoring companies operating in the country.