OREANDA-NEWS. Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port Group (NCSP Group or the Group) (LSE: NCSP, Moscow Exchange: NMTP) announces that its consolidated cargo turnover in January-July 2014 amounted to 79.7 million tonnes.

Liquid cargo turnover comprised 63.6 mln tonnes; bulk cargo totaled 5.9 mln tonnes; general cargo amounted to 7 mln tonnes, and container turnover reached 3.3 mln tonnes or 408 thousand TEU.

PJSC NCSP CEO Sultan Batov commented on Group's operating results for January-July 2014: "We are entering the second half of the year with new positive trends, which should sustain previously achieved growth in other segments. For the first time since January coal handling showed 13.8% year-on-year growth. Volumes of oil products, containers, ferrous metals, and UAN continue to grow, and growth rates speed up. Export of new gain harvest was now successfully launched".

Liquid Cargo

From January till July of 2014 the Group loaded 63 592 thousand tonnes of liquid cargo, including 45 872 thousand tonnes of crude oil; 17 099 thousand tonnes of oil products; 407 thousand tonnes and 214 thousand tonnes of liquid fertilizers and seed oils respectively.

Oil products volumes increased by 14.2 % year-on-year or by 2 123 thousand tonnes; UAN volumes grew 15% year on year versus 10.2% growth for the six months; and seed oils' volumes nearly doubled.

Bulk Cargo

Handling of bulk cargo totaled 5 873 thousand tonnes in January-July 2014. Of these grain accounted for 3 090 thousand tonnes; iron ore comprised 1 027 thousand tonnes; sugar totaled 716 thousand tonnes; coal amounted to 644 thousand tonnes, and fertilizers comprised 367 thousand tonnes.

In July exporters begun shipping grain of the new harvest, and July volumes amounted to 550 thousand tonnes, offsetting the mid-season slump in June.

Growth of raw sugar volumes slowed down to 26.5% year-on-year following a decline in imports due to the anticipation of the domestic sugar-beet season.

For the first time since January coal volumes recorder 13.8% year-on-year growth thanks to more attractive pricing on Russian coal, and a slump in shipments to the Mediterranean from Ukrainian ports.

General Cargo

General cargo volumes in January-July 2014 totaled 6 962 thousand tonnes with a 9.6% year-on-year growth. Of these ferrous metals comprised 5 677 thousand tonnes, non-ferrous metals accounted for 602 thousand tonnes, timber totaled 366 thousand tonnes, perishable and other cargo amounted to 200 and 117 thousand tonnes respectively.

Volumes of ferrous metal and pig iron increased by 533 thousand tonnes or 10.4% year-on-year, and growth rate improved by 1 percent point from that of the six months.

Timber handling was 32.0% year-on-year as growth rate sped by 2.6 percent points. Smaller volumes in July were conditioned by the reduction of economic activity in many of the destination countries during the Ramadan holiday.

The lag in non-ferrous metals shrank by half from the six months to -2.6% year-on-year.

Containers

NCSP Group's container traffic in January-July 2014 was up 10.7% year-on-year reaching 408 thousand TEU. Container turnover in tonnes grew by 15.5% year-on-year.