Latvian ports handled 17.301 million tonnes of cargo in the first half of this year, which is 3.5% less than in the same period of 2024, according to the country’s Ministry of Transport.
Bulk cargoes were handled the most in six months – 7.521 million tonnes (down 15.3%), including grain and grain products – 2.697 million tonnes (down 21%), wood chips – 1.235 million tonnes (down 14.8%), coal – 666,000 tonnes (up 23.6%), chemical cargoes – 244,000 tonnes (up 8.2%).
The volume of general cargo handled was 6.614 million tonnes, down 3.6%, including timber – 2.357 million tonnes (down 13.1%), container cargo – 2.526 million tonnes (up 2.2%), roll on/roll off cargo – 1.619 million tonnes (up 4.4%).
Bulk cargo transshipment increased by 44.4% to 3.166 million tonnes. The bulk of these cargoes were oil products – 2.841 million tonnes (up 55.1%).
The Port of Riga remained the leader in terms of transshipment volumes in January-June with 8.088 million tonnes, which is 9% less than a year earlier. Cargo turnover of Ventspils port was 4.481 million tonnes (14.5% growth), Liepaja port – 3.435 million tonnes (7.2% decrease).
Small ports in Latvia handled 1.296 million tonnes of cargo in January-June (down by 9.7%). Among them, the port of Skulte showed the highest cargo turnover – 627.7 thousand tonnes (down 15.3%). Mersrags handled 369.1 thousand tonnes of cargo (down by 6.5%), Salacgrīva – 274 thousand tonnes (down by 0.1%).
In 2024, cargo turnover of Latvian ports fell by 6.8% year-on-year to 36.012 million tonnes.