Port of Antwerp Experiences Slight Decline in Freight Volumes
2019-04-28 (22:59)
The port of Antwerp handled 138,905,003 tonnes of freight during the first nine months of this year. This represents a drop of 2.2% compared with the same period last year, due mainly to the temporary shutdown of activities by Belgian Refining Corporation (BRC).
The container volume for its part was down very slightly, by 0.6%. On the other hand ro/ro and dry bulk continued their positive trend of the past nine months, rising by 18.6% and 1.7% respectively.
In terms of tonnage, the Antwerp container volume in the first three quarters decreased by 0.6% to 78,722,648 tonnes. In the same period last year the volume was 79,206,404 tonnes. In terms of standard containers (twenty-foot equivalent units) the volume was 6,517,956 TEU. That is 0.5% less than the first nine months of 2011, when 6,548,779 TEU was handled.
The volume of liquid and dry bulk decreased overall by 3.4%, to 48,407,751 tonnes. Liquid bulk was down by 5.4%, to 33,702,020 tonnes. The decline in imports of crude oil was particularly marked, falling by 41.3% to 2,027,695 tonnes due to the temporary closure of production at BRC. Dry bulk for its part experienced a rise of 1.7%, to 14,705,731 tonnes. In this category there was an increase in the volume of coal (up 14.6% to 4,576,011 tonnes), while contractions were suffered by fertilisers (down 9.0% to 3,159,597 tonnes) and ore (down 4.4% to 2,087,193 tonnes).
In the conventional/breakbulk field 8,176,995 tonnes of freight was handled, a decrease of 15.9% compared with the same period last year. The drop is mainly due to the lower volume of steel, reflecting the current economic climate. During the first three quarters of 2012 a steel volume of 5,117,453 was handled, which is 21.6% less than the 6,528,591 tonnes for the corresponding period in 2011. For the rest there were mixed results for fruit (down 2.9% to 979,161 tonnes), paper and cellulose (up 19.4% to 666,005 tonnes), granite (down 27.0% to 177,050 tonnes) and non-ferrous metals (up 51.7% to 390,129 tonnes). The ro/ro volume for its part is up by 18.6% to 3,597,609 tonnes, with the number of cars handled growing by 18.9% to 918,995.
During the first nine months of 2012 there were 11,039 calls by seagoing ships in the port of Antwerp, down 5.1% on the same period last year. The gross tonnage for its part suffered a slight contraction of 0.1%, to 238.8 million GT.
The number of freight handling jobs expanded in the first nine months of 2012 by 0.47%, to 1,192,137. By way of comparison, the number at the end of the same period in 2011 was 1,186,614.
Movement Towards Visa-Free Regime with EU Is Slow, Medvedev Said
2019-04-26 (23:03)
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said he’s frustrated with the slow pace of transition to a visa-free regime with the European Union.
“We’ve done a lot in this direction in recent years. But things are not very good so far,” Medvedev told a meeting of the Foreign Investment Advisory Council on Monday.
“We believe that we’ve done everything we could to adjust our legislation. We’ve signed re-admission agreements with almost all countries of the European Union. But there's a number of EU states which block free communication,” the premier went on to say.
“It seems to me that this is unfair and short-sighted,” Medvedev told representatives of business circles.
The premier said that Russia was also involved in talks with the United States on facilitation of visa regime. Medvedev admitted that some progress had been made in this direction but it was still below the Russian side's expectations.
Container Cargo Turnover at Latvian Ports Increased by 23.8% in January-September
2019-03-26 (23:28)
Container cargo turnover at Latvian ports grew by 23.8% in the first nine months of 2012, reaching a total of 278,630 TEU.
The Freeport of Riga handled the largest container cargo volume in January-September 2012 – 275,025 TEU, a 23.5% increase on the respective period in 2011, informs LETA/Nozare.lv.
The Port of Liepaja had 3,198 TEU (a 32.5% increase) and the Freeport of Ventspils – 360 TEU.
