The aggregate throughput of the stevedoring companies incorporated in Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port Group made 140.2 mn tons during the full year of 2018 declining 2.3% year-on-year.
Geographically, the only port location where the throughput declined was Primorsk, which lost 7.1% handling 53.5 mn tons.
Baltiysk (Baltic Stevedore Co) grew both in terms of TEU (up 22.4% to 199 thousand TEU) and tonnage (up 16.2% to 1.1 mn tons).
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 over 85.6 mn tons, up 0.8% year-on-year.
Liquid bulk, which accounts for the major share in the aggregate throughput of the Group, dropped 5.2% year-on-year down to 100.5 mn tons. Crude oil traffic decreased both in Novorossiysk and Primorsk. While Novorossiysk saw its volume decline 9.8% down to 27.7 mn tons, Primorsk lost 12.5% handling 38.5 mn tons.
Oil products volume, on the contrary, grew 9.7% up to 33.3 mn tons. Novorossiysk was up 9.3% to 18.3 mn tons, and Primorsk up 11.2% to almost 15 mn tons.
Solid bulk increased 2.3% up to 17.6 mn tons. The growth was due to increasing export of grains. Grain handling grew by 14.3% up to 12.8 mn tons. Other commodities in this segment declined.
Iron ore declined 10.1% down to 2.5 mn tons. Coal traffic dropped 27.6% down to 1.4 mn tons due to the lower demand in Turkey. Chemicals were down 19.4% to 582 thousand tons, and war sugar down 45.8% to 271 thousand tons.
General cargo grew 8.1% up to some 15 mn tons, the only commodity in this group that actually grew was ferrous metals and cast iron, which were up 13% to 13.5 mn tons.
Non-ferrous metals were down 17.7% to 1 mn tons, timber and logs down 25.1% to 309 thousand tons, and perishables down 36.8% to 184 thousand tons.
Container traffic via Novorossiysk declined, while that via Baltiysk grew.