OREANDA-NEWS The cargo turnover of the Large Port of St. Petersburg has almost doubled since January 2023 and reached 4.4 million tons (an increase of 43.9%), according to the Association of Commercial Seaports (ASOP). The total cargo turnover of the ports of the Baltic Basin decreased by 4.4% over the year and amounted to 21.6 million tons, of which the volume of bulk cargo transshipment was 11.9 million tons (a drop of 17%), the volume of dry cargo transshipment was 9.7 million tons (an increase of 17.7%).

The volume of cargo turnover of the seaport of Vysotsk has increased by 1.9% (1.2 million tons) since January last year, and the seaport of Primorsk has increased by 3.4% (6.2 million tons). The cargo turnover of all Russian seaports as a whole decreased by 6.2% compared to January 2023 (to 71.0 million tons). Ust-Luga MTP suffered the most — its cargo turnover fell by 22.6% over the year, falling to 9.0 million tons.

The decline in cargo turnover of the commercial seaport member of the Board of the association "Guild of professional market participants in the provision of services in the field of customs and foreign economic activity "Hermes" (Foreign economic activity "HERMES") Yuri Kovalev explains precisely the "resource" orientation of Ust-Luga.

"The big port of St. Petersburg is, first of all, a container port, and Ust-Luga is a port of general cargo, including oil," the expert stressed. — Probably, the volume of cargo that passes through this port was falling, there was a drawdown for certain resource raw materials. Container transportation is very poorly represented there, therefore, in the Large Port of St. Petersburg, the growth is due to container transportation, and in Ust-Luga, the decline is due to resources. The fall is not good, but not critical."

Alexander Dmitriev, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Business, Customs and Economic Security at St. Petersburg State University of Economics, in an interview with RBC Petersburg, linked the restoration of the BMP cargo turnover with the effect of a low base in 2022. According to him, by the end of July 2022, most of the Western sanctions had already entered into force and led to restrictions on the operation of Russian seaports.

Then the Big Port of St. Petersburg turned out to be the most affected in Russia by international sanctions, RBC Petersburg wrote. At the same time, the drop in cargo turnover amounted to 37.5%, although at least a twofold drop was predicted as early as the beginning of autumn 2022.