The aggregate throughput of the stevedoring companies incorporated in Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port Group made 116.9 mn tons during January-October 2018 declining 2.4% year-on-year.
Geographically, the only port location where the throughput declined was Primorsk, which lost 10% handling 44.5 mn tons.
Baltiysk (Baltic Stevedore Co) grew both in terms of TEU (up 12.7%) and tonnage (up 10.4%).
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 71.6 mn tons, up 2.9% year-on-year.
On the whole, the only commodity group that declined was liquid bulk, which accounts for 71.8 of the aggregate throughput of the Group. In January-October 2018 liquid bulk declined 6.1% year-on-year down to 83.9 mn tons.
Crude oil traffic via Novorossiysk and Primorsk dropped 13.6% down to 54.9 mn tons, Novorossiysk saw its volume decline 9.6% down to 23 mn tons, and Primorsk 16.2% down to 31.8 mn tons.
Oil products volume, on the contrary, grew 12.4% up to 28.2 mn tons. Novorossiysk was up 14% to 15.6 mn tons, and Primorsk up 10.5% to 12.6 mn tons.
Solid bulk increased 7.1% up to 14.5 mn tons. The growth was due to increasing export of grains. Grain handling grew by 22.7% up to 10.7 mn tons. Other commodities in this segment declined.
Coal traffic dropped 27% down to 1.3 mn tons negatively affected by declining demand in Turkey. Chemicals were down 25.3% to 457 thousand tons, iron ore down 4.7% to 2 mn tons, and raw sugar down 65.6% to 155 thousand tons.
General cargo grew 7.7% up to some 12.4 mn tons, the only commodity in this group that actually grew was ferrous metals and cast iron, which were up 11.3% to 11.2 mn tons.
Non-ferrous metals were down 13.3% to 826 thousand tons, timber and logs down 22.1% to 262 thousand tons, and perishables down 20.5% to 173 thousand tons.
Container traffic via Novorossiysk declined, while that via Baltiysk grew.