The aggregate throughput of the stevedoring companies incorporated in Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port Group made 94.2 mn tons during January-August 2018 declining 2.9% year-on-year.
Geographically, the only port location where the throughput declined was Primorsk, which lost 10.8% handling 35.8 mn tons.
Baltiysk (Baltic Stevedore Co) grew both in terms of TEU (up 12.6%) and tonnage (up 9.9%).
Novorossiysk-based assets of the group (these include Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port proper, Novoroslesexport, Importpishscheprom, Novorossiysk Shiprepair Yard and Novorossiysk Grain Terminal, and Novorossiysk Fuel Oil Terminal, a joint venture with Chernomorskie Main Pipeline Company) handled 57.7 mn tons, up 2.5% year-on-year.
On the whole, the only commodity group that declined was liquid bulk, which declined 7.4% year-on-year down to 67.7 mn tons.
Crude oil traffic via Novorossiysk and Primorsk dropped 15% down to 43.5 mn tons, Novorossiysk saw its volume decline 12.5% down to 18.1 mn tons, and Primorsk 16.7% down to 25.3 mn tons.
Oil products volume, on the contrary, grew 10.4% up to 23.4 mn tons. Novorossiysk was up 12.6% to 12.9 mn tons, and Primorsk up 7.7% to 10.5 mn tons.
Solid bulk increased 11.1% up to 11.6 mn tons. The growth was due to increasing export of grains. Grain handling surged 31.7% up to 8.4 mn tons. Other commodities in this segment declined.
Chemicals were down 27.8% to 398 thousand tons, coal down 26.6% to 1.1 mn tons, iron ore down 7.4% to 1.6 mn tons, and raw sugar down 61.2% to 122 thousand tons.
General cargo grew 8.3% up to slightly over 10 mn tons, the only commodity in this group that actually grew was ferrous metals and cast iron, which were up 11.6% to 8.9 mn tons.
Non-ferrous metals were down 12.3% to 686 thousand tons, timber and logs down 16.9% to 202 thousand tons, and perishables down 8.4% to 166 thousand tons.
Container traffic via both Novorossiysk and Baltiysk grew.