There is fierce competition among all Baltic Sea ports and Russian ports in containerised cargo shipments, said Aivars Taurins, head of Latvian Logistics Association.
He told Baltic Business News that high-value goods are being shipped in containers. "The competition is sharp in the whole Baltic Sea. Currently as many containers go through Finland as through Latvia and Lithuania together. Important market players also include the Gdynia port in Poland, Kotka, Hamina and Helsinki ports in Finland, St Petersburg and Kaliningrad ports in Russia.
The competition is very fierce," Taurins said.
He stressed that container transport was very much sought after, because it stimulated all other types of transport and the economic development in general.
Taurins said that Latvian ports were also glad to reload coal, as it brought more fee-paying ships to Latvian ports, irrespective of their cargo type.
As regards such freight as bulk cargo, liquid cargo and timber ¨C Latvian ports see most competition from Lithuania and Russian ports, but in railway cargo transport, the biggest competition is seen from Lithuania, Taurins said.
There are three large and seven small ports in Latvia. In the first seven months of this year, 37,487 tonnes of cargo were reloaded in Latvian ports, which is 0.6 percent less than last year.
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