NOVOROSSIYSK, RUSSIA — Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP) Group reported July 20 that bulk cargo volumes, which include grain, totaled 5.263 million tonnes for the first half of the year, an increase of 7.4% or 362,000 tonnes.

Grain volumes totaled 2.541 million tonnes; chemical cargo comprised 527,000 tonnes; sugar accounted for 584,000 tonnes; iron ore amounted to 895,000 tonnes, and coal volumes totaled 716,000 tonnes.
Grain volumes caught up with the first half of 2014 despite total transshipment of grain at Russian seaports dropping 5.1% year-on-year according to Association of Commercial Seaports.

Its consolidated cargo turnover for the first six months of the year was 70.2 million tonnes, up by 2.1% or 1.4 million tonnes compared to the same  period last year.

Liquid cargo totaled 55.335 million tonnes, bulk cargo comprised 5.263 million tonnes, general cargo amounted to 7.037 million tonnes, and containers accounted for 2.55 million tonnes. Volumes of liquid cargo were up 0.7% year-on-year, bulk and general cargo rose by 7.4% and 16.5% year-on-year respectively. Container traffic in tonnes was reduced by 11.1%.

“Total volumes in the first half of 2015  increased 2.1% year-on-year, which is in line with our best-case scenario,” said Sultan Batov  chief executive officer of PJSC NCSP.

“It is worth noting, that we managed to catch up with last year on grain volumes as soon as export duties on wheat were loosened, despite the 5.1% reduction of grain volumes at Russian seaports in total.”