Over the first nine months of 2019, Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg JSC (SP SPb) handled 5.1 million tonnes of cargo, down 11% versus the same period of the previous year.
The decrease should be attributed to the change of the market situation and to reduction of ferrous metal exports by NLMK and Severstal particularly caused by repair of these company’s production facilities. SP SPb made use of the temporary decline of ferrous metal flow for modernization of storage facilities intended for this type of cargo.
Between January and September of the current year, transshipment of general cargo fell by 14%, year-on-year, to 4.3 million tonnes. Handling of ferrous metal dropped by 30% to 1.9 million tonnes while transshipment of non-ferrous metal climbed by 1% to 980,000 tonnes. Handling of metal scrap remained flat, year-on-year, at 641,000 tonnes.
Traditional increase was demonstrated in the segment of wood pellets and mineral fertilizers in big-bags. For these types of cargo, SP SPb offers special facilities providing cargo owners with opportunities for stock management and logistics optimization. In the reporting period, handling of pellets exceeded 325,000 tonnes, up 59%, year-on-year, with handling of mineral fertilizers in big-bags having reached 376,000 tonnes, up 16% versus the result of the previous year.
Transshipment of dry bulk cargo grew by 21% to 484,000 tonnes including more than 300,000 tonnes of ore (+29%) and 121,000 tonnes of mineral fertilizers (up 3.7 times).
Container throughput also showed an increase driven by the development of the port’s container service. The company increased container transshipment by 2% to over 24,000 TEUs.
Exports from the port totaled 4.8 million tonnes (-12%), imports – 268,000 tonnes with export/import ratio of SP SPb cargo turnover making 95% and 5% accordingly.
