In January-September 2018, Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg JSC (SP SP) handled 5.7 million tonnes of cargo showing a 12-pct increase, year-on-year.
The growth was driven by increased handling of ferrous metal, metal scrap, ore, mineral fertilizers in big bags and containers. The company also attracted new types of cargo including cast iron and ferrous-based alloys, which contributed a lot to the growth.
Total transshipment of general cargo via Sp SPb grew by 5% to 4.97 million tonnes including 2.77 million tonnes of ferrous metal. With the expanded range of this cargo its transshipment grew by 3%. From the beginning of the year, SP SPb handled almost 120,000 tonnes of cast iron.
Meanwhile, transshipment of non-ferrous metal fell by 9% to 966,000 tonnes. The decrease should be attributed to partial redirection of export flows from Europe and America to the markets of Southeast Asia and Russia.
In the reporting period, transshipment of metal scrap grew 1.5 times to 640,000 tonnes, transshipment of mineral fertilizers in big bags surged by 83% to 325,000 tonnes. To facilitate handling of this cargo the company has created a dedicated storage infrastructure to let the customers accumulate optimal shiploads and reduce costs so that they could meet the growing demand in the international market.
Transshipment of wood pellets climbed by 1%, year-on-year, to 205,000 tonnes.
Transshipment of dry bulk cargo surged three-fold to 400,000 tonnes. In particular, ore transshipment totaled 237,000 tonnes – 7 times as much as in the same period of the previous year. The company also handled 57,000 tonnes of ferrous-based alloys which were not handled in the same period of the previous year.
The company continued development of its own container service. From the beginning of 2018, container handling totaled 23,500 TEUs (+24%, year-on-year).
Exports via SP SPb grew by 14%, year-on-year to 5.5 million tonnes, while imports dropped by 30% to 212,000 tonnes. Exports account for 96% of the company’s throughput, imports – for 4%.
