In 2019 Q4, 5.6 million tonnes of cargo and 2.3 million passengers passed through the harbours of Port of Tallinn. Compared to the same period of previous year, the cargo volume increased by 12.3% mainly due to liquid bulk. The passenger volume increased by 1.2% and the number of ship calls grew by 2.8% to 1893 calls.
In 2019, the annual cargo volume of Port of Tallinn totalled 19.9 million tonnes, decreasing by 3.3% compared to the previous year, mainly due to decrease of the liquid bulk volume in Q3, which, on the other hand, was balanced by growth in dry bulk. The number of passengers increased by 0.2% year-on-year, reaching a record of 10.64 million passengers. The growth was driven by passenger traffic between Estonia and Finland on the Tallinn-Helsinki and Muuga-Vuosaari routes and was also supported by another annual record of 660 thousand cruise passengers.
According to Valdo Kalm, Chairman of the Management Board of the Port of Tallinn, it is positive, that the Q4 strong growth in liquid bulk, which was caused by increased demand for storage and blending of dark petroleum products due to IMO requirements for marine fuels effective from the beginning of 2020, helped to significantly reduce the drop in annual cargo volume compared to 9 months result. At the same time, liquid cargo business remains volatile and Q4 growth should not be interpreted as a continuing trend. The year-on-year decrease in liquid cargo was also compensated by the growth of dry bulk, mainly due to the export of Estonian grain and the import of crushed stone.
“For the number of passengers, we reached a record for the 12th consecutive year, thanks to recovery of passenger traffic between Estonia and Finland, which was also strongly supported by the addition of servicing passengers with vehicles and the addition of a new ship on the Muuga-Vuosaari route. In the cruise business, we have once again achieved a record and Tallinn remains one of the most attractive cruise destinations in Europe,” Kalm noted.
Sea News, January 13
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