OREANDA-NEWS. February 01, 2011. The Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port Group (LSE: NCSP, RTS and MICEX: NMTP) hereby reports its consolidated operating results for the full year 2010. In the reporting period NCSP Group cargo turnover amounted to 81 602.8 thousand tons versus 86 519.4 thousand tons in 2009.

Commenting on the 2010 operating results CEO of NCSP Igor Vilinov said: "The year-end results came out quite expectable and well-balanced, which highlights the importance of further investments in cargo and geographical diversification to maintain a strong base for future growth, while this year’s breakthrough in the container segment is the best argument in favor of our investment priorities. "

The doubling of container traffic was the strongest factor supporting NCSP Group operating performance throughout 2010. Group’s container throughput in the reporting year totaled 471.4 thousand TEU versus 234.8 thousand TEU in 2009. At the same time Baltic Stevedoring Company boosted throughput by 250.6% from 48.1 thousand TEU in 2009 to 168.8 thousand TEU in 2010, and the NLE terminal in Novorossiysk increased its volumes by 122.9% which amounts to 187.2 thousand TEU.

Fertilizers, sugar, timber, non-ferrous metals, and perishable cargo also showed good growth in 2010 and increased by 23.0%, 30.9%, 14.3%, 28.8%, and 32.1% respectively.

Major factors negatively affecting Group’s cargo traffic in 2010 were the reduction of export crude oil volumes delivered by pipelines to 42 061.3 thousand tons in 2010 versus 44 496.2 thousand tons in 2009, as well as the imposition of the grain export ban in August 2010, which caused annual grain volumes to drop by 3 315.2 thousand tons compared to 2009.

Excluding the above mentioned negative factors, which are not directly derived from the situation in the stevedoring services market, the total volume of all other cargoes loaded by NCSP Group in 2010 increased by 2.5% in year-on-year.

It is also worth mentioning that the last months of 2010 proved exceptionally good for NCSP. In December 2010 versus November 2010 strong growth was recorded for most cargoes, including crude oil, petroleum products, and ferrous metals which grew by 13.4%, 44.6%, and 60.7% respectively.