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-September 2014 amounted to 101 million tonnes.

Liquid cargo turnover comprised 79.3 mln tonnes; bulk cargo totaled 8.7 mln tonnes; general cargo amounted to 8.9 mln tonnes, and container turnover reached 4.1 mln tonnes or 497.5 thousand TEU.

PJSC NCSP CEO Sultan Batov commented on Group's operating results for nine months of 2014: "In September cargo traffic was constrained by adverse weather conditions at Novorossiysk, where storm warning lasted for a total of 10 days versus 3 days in August, as well as by coinciding restrictions on railroad dispatches to Novorossiysk port enacted by the Russian Railways.

Nevertheless we managed to maintain record gain loading rates achieved in August. As much as 962 thousand tonnes of grain was loaded in September, which makes the largest volume of all dry cargo.

Raw sugar, coal, and timber continue to demonstrate material acceleration of year-on-year growth rates, and so does iron ore by drastically reducing the gap from last year".

Liquid Cargo

Liquid cargo volumes totaled 79 336 thousand tonnes for three quarters of 2014, including 57 143 thousand tonnes of crude oil; 21 420 thousand tonnes of oil products; 534 thousand tonnes and 240 thousand tonnes of liquid fertilizers and seed oils respectively.

Oil products handling increased over that of 9 months 2014 by 2 433 thousand tonnes or 12.8% year on year, growth rate accelerated by nearly one percent point from that of eight months. UAN volumes grew by 99 thousand tones or 22.8% year on year and sped up by 5 percent points versus eight months of 2014.

Bulk Cargo

Handling of bulk cargo totaled 8 650 thousand tonnes in the reporting period. Of these grain accounted for 5 037 thousand tonnes; iron ore comprised 1 385 thousand tonnes; coal totaled 860 thousand tonnes; raw sugar amounted to 843 thousand tonnes, and fertilizers 490 thousand tonnes.

Coal volumes increased by 30.4% year on year, accelerating by another 5.6 percent points in September versus August.

Raw sugar volumes grew 27.6% year on year supported by general increase in shipments of this cargo , as well as by concentration of sugar traffic at Novorossiysk. Growth rate sped up by 6.8 percent point versus eight months.

Thanks to increased shipments to the Mediterranean and the Middle East the lag in iron ore volumes reduced by 5.9 percent points (almost a half) down to 7.2% year on year.

General Cargo

General cargo volumes in January-September 2014 totaled 8 898 thousand tonnes, which is 10% more than same period last year.

Of these ferrous metals comprised 7 225 thousand tonnes, non-ferrous metals accounted for 775 thousand tonnes, timber totaled 487 thousand tonnes, perishable and other cargo amounted to 223 and 188 thousand tonnes respectively.

Volumes of ferrous metal and pig iron exceeded these of same period last year by 10.0%. Timber volumes are up by 143 thousand tonnes or 41.6% year-on-year, as growth rate increased by 3.5 percent points versus that of eight months.

Containers

NCSP Group's container traffic for three quarters of 2014 comprised 4 133 thousand tonnes or 497.5 thousand TEU which exceeds that of same period last year by 15.1% and 8.5% respectively.