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-April 2013 amounted to 49.5 million tonnes, compared to 55.3 million tonnes in the same period of last year.

Commenting on the Group’s operating results for January-April 2013, NCSP Acting CEO Yury Matvienko said: “The Group’s cargo handling volumes continue to follow the trends seen in the first quarter of the year. The month-on-month growth in crude oil handling is notable, as we have further reduced the overall y-o-y decline in April. Also of note are the positive trend in oil products handling, as well as sustainable developments in container, coal and cement volumes.

Liquid cargo

Handling of liquid cargo in the reporting period was 42,071.8, compared to 45,426.1 ths tonnes in January-April 2012.

Crude oil handling in January-April 2013 totalled 32,926.8 ths tonnes, compared to 38,428.4 ths tonnes in the same period of last year. In April 2013, crude handling increased by 8.0% compared to March.

Oil products handling in 4M 2013 grew by 2,222.1 ths tonnes (33.3%) compared to January-April 2012 and amounted to 8,888.5 ths tonnes. This was driven primarily by the Novorossiysk Fuel Oil Terminal and Primorsk Trade Port, where volumes increased by 864.4 thousand tonnes and 919.9 thousand tonnes, respectively.

Oil products handling at all Russian sea ports in 4M 2012 grew by just 0.6% compared to 2012 levels, according to ASOP.

Liquid fertilizers (ammonium nitrate) also saw sustainable growth, increasing more than two-fold y-o-y to 190.4 ths tonnes in the reporting period.

Bulk cargo

In the first four months of 2013, NCSP Group handled 1,933.7 ths tonnes of bulk cargo. The 56.6% y-o-y decrease relative to January-April 2012 was largely due to a decline in grain volumes caused by the poor harvest in 2012. At the same time, volumes of coal, sugar and cement grew y-o-y in the first four months of 2013.

General cargo

General cargo volumes in 4M 2013 increased by 112.2 ths tonnes (3.0%) and amounted to 3,838.7 ths tonnes.

Volumes of ferrous metals were up 2.8% y-o-y for 4M 2013 though the growth rate slowed, with overall ferrous metals volumes at all Russian sea ports declining 14.8% in the reporting period according to ASOP.

Timber volumes declined 22.3% year-on-year in the first four months of 2013. Timber exports continue to be affected by instability in traditional timber-importing markets like Africa and the Middle East.

Perishable cargoes grew significantly, by 127.6% y-o-y, in the reporting period.

Containers

NCSP Group’s total container throughput in January and April 2013 increased by 5.7 thousand TEU (2.7%) year-on-year. The slight decline in container volumes measured in tonnes was in line with the general industry trend towards a declining share of loaded containers in export container traffic.