OREANDA-NEWS. December 08, 2010. Cargo throughput of Free Port of Riga (Latvia) in January-November rose by 2.1% from the same period of 2009 to 27,816,500 tons, the Port Authority statistics said.

In the 11-month period the port handled 15,954,300 tons of bulk cargo, a 9.5-percent drop, 5,907,800 tons of liquid bulk cargo (-1.5%), while general cargoes surged 49.9% from Jan-Nov, 2009 to 5,954,400 tons.

The increase in freight handling in the reporting period was fueled by coal and petroleum products, which rose by 38.4% and 21,1%, accordingly. The share of timber cargo was 14.7% of the total turnover, container volume – 8.4%, fertilizer - 4.5%.

Freeport of Riga lies on both banks of the River Daugava (Western Dvina) covering the total area of 6.348 ha. The length of berths – 13.818 meters, maximum draft of vessels at berth is 12.2 meters. Transit cargoes make up 80% of overall freight traffic, carried to / from the CIS countries. In 2009 the Port of Riga posted a year-over-year 0.5-percent gain to 29.72 million tons of cargo.