Due to the rising freight charges and reduced capacities because of the COVID-19 pandemic, freight traffic in Russia is severely restricted. However, its seaports have reported positive cargo handling.
Nevertheless, considering that Russia closed its borders later than other European countries, its seaports have reported positive cargo handling figures in the first quarter.
Namely, from January to March 2020, cargo handling in Russian seaports increased by 2.4% to a total of 207.08 million tonnes. The volume of dry cargo handled amounted to 88.25 million tonnes, with the volume of liquid cargo rising to 118.83 million tonnes.
Moreover, the volume of goods handled in the individual regions rose at different rates, as traffic from China and Europe in particular fell. Namely, the ports of the Far East achieved a growth rate of 2.2%, with the ports in the Caspian region increasing their cargo handling by 31.6% to 2.18 million tonnes. The ports of the Baltic Sea and the Azov/Black Sea regions presented moderate growth of 3.6% and 3.4%, respectively. Nonetheless, the volume of goods handled by ports in the Arctic region reduced by 4.7% to 24.87 million tonnes (handling of dry cargo decreased by 9.8%).
In addition, the growth rate of cargo handling increased to 2.7% from January to March. Last year an increase of 4.7% was recorded in the first quarter, after which the growth rate fell to 3%.
Furthermore, container handling in Russian ports amounted to 1.32 million TEU, surpassing the previous year’s figures for the same period by 1.6%. The handling of import containers reduced by 0.4% to 557.27 thousand TEU (loaded – 1.2%, empty +8.6%), while the handling of export containers rose by +3.8% to 548.22 thousand TEU (loaded +14.1%). With a total volume of 141,000 TEU, slightly less reefer containers were handled than in the respective period of the previous year. Cabotage increased by 5.3% to 187.91 thousand TEU. Transit fell sharply by 17.9%.
These figures are also reflected in the regional reports. Specifically, the Baltic Sea ports faced a decline in container handling of 1.6% to 635.04 thousand TEU. The ports of the Azov/Black Sea region registered an increase of 6.1% to 222.81 thousand TEU. Similarly, the ports of the Far East reported a growth of 4.2% and those of the Arctic region of 1.9%. The ports of the Caspian region also increased container handling by 40.6%.
Finally, the growth rate for container handling fell below 1% in January of this year. From January to February, it only grew to 1%, while from January to March it increased to 1.6%. In comparison, the results for the first quarter of 2019 grew by 8%, in 2018 +12.6% and in 2017 +10.7%.