OREANDA-NEWS. Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port Group (NCSP Group or the Group) (LSE: NCSP, Moscow Exchange: NMTP) announces today that its consolidated cargo turnover for the period of January-March 2013 amounted to 37 million tonnes, compared to 41 million tonnes in the same period of last year.

Commenting on the Group’s operating results for January-March 2013, Acting NCSP CEO Yury Matvienko said: "The volatility in crude volumes and the absence of Russian grain exports continues to put pressure on the Group’s operational performance. However, total crude shipments rose in March by 9.8% month-on-month while growth was recorded at both Primorsk and Novorossiysk ports".

"Other positive trends in the first quarter included increased growth in oil products handling, a boost in monthly loading of coal and iron ore and stable growth rates for volumes of ferrous metals".

Liquid cargo

Handling of liquid cargo in the reporting period decreased by 2,682.7 ths tonnes (or 8.0%) year-on-year to 31,030.8 ths tonnes.

Crude oil handling in January-March 2013 totalled 24,017 ths tonnes, compared to 28,483.1 ths tonnes in the same period of last year. In March, crude handling increased by 734.9 ths tonnes compared to February, including 249.4 ths tonnes in Novorossiysk and 485.5 ths tonnes in Primorsk. Thus the Group was able to catch up a little on crude volumes, and year-on-year decrease in Q1 2013 was lower than that of January-February 2013 by two percentage points.

Oil products transhipment demonstrated growth of 1,810.5 ths tonnes (36.1%) compared to January-March 2012 and amounted to 6827.8 ths tonnes. Oil products’ year-on-year growth in Q1 2013 improved over that of January-February 2013 (31.5%) by 4 percentage points.

For the same period growth in oil products transhipment at all Russian sea ports amounted to 0.2% compared to 2012 levels, according to ASOP*.

Bulk cargo

In the first three months of 2013, NCSP Group handled 1,601.0 ths tonnes of bulk cargo. The decrease of 1769.8 ths tonnes relative to January-March 2012 was largely due to a decline in grain volumes caused by a poor harvest of 2012.

Coal, which the Group was handling since August 2012, now makes a substantial contribution by compensating for shrinking volumes of other cargo. In January-March 2013 coal handling comprised 296.5 ths tonnes. The growth in coal volumes in March compared to February amounted to 43.5 ths tonnes (53.6%).

Transhipments of sugar increased materially, to 241.8 ths tonnes, demonstrating growth of 120.4% compared to the first quarter of the previous year.

Cement handling increased by 38.2% compared to the same period of the previous year, in part as a result of a contract with the major Turkish cement producer Chimsa.

Handling of iron ore and ore concentrate increased by 1.8% year-on-year, though March volumes exceed February volumes by 16.6%

General cargo

General cargo volumes continued growth in the three months of 2013, with throughput increasing by 302.7 ths tonnes (10.8%) and amounting to 3,105.3 ths tonnes.

Volumes of ferrous metals increased by 275.4 ths tonnes (12.0%) year-on-year against the 10.3%* year-on-year decrease of ferrous metals handling at all Russian seaports combined in the reporting period.

Timber volumes declined 15.4% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2013. Timber exports continue to be affected by ongoing political instability in some African and Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt and Syria, which are among the top importers or Russian timber. Handling of timber at Russian sea ports decreased by 21.8%* year-on-year in the first three months of 2013.

Containers

NCSP Group total container throughput in January and March 2013 increased by 9.9 thousand TEU (6.6%) year-on-year. The highest growth was achieved by NLE in Novorossiysk, where volumes increased by 27.8%, setting a monthly record of container shipments at 32.7 TEU, 20.8% higher than in February of this year