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 ten month period of January-October 2013 amounted to 118.1 million tonnes, compared to 134.4 million tonnes in the first ten months of 2012.

PJSC NCSP CEO Yuri Matvienko said: “Crude oil handling remains the primary reason for declining volumes. At the same time, since the new crop arrived in the third quarter, grain shipments recovered to normal levels. The year-on-year gap in grain volumes has not expanded since June, and it remains entirely attributable to the lack of grain shipments in the first six months of 2013 due to the previous year's poor harvest causing export grain to be redirected to the domestic market. The fastest growth continues to be in oil products, which saw a year-on-year increase of five million tonnes.”

Liquid cargo

Handling of liquid cargo in the ten-month period was 98,555 ths tonnes. Crude oil handling totalled 77,513 ths tonnes, oil products handling amounted to 20,384 ths tonnes, UAN handling equalled 505 ths tonnes. Oil products and UAN volumes increased year-on-year by 32.5% and 39.8%, respectively.

Bulk cargo

NCSP Group handled 6,846 ths tonnes of bulk cargo in 10M 2013. This included 2,949 ths tonnes of grain, 1,634 ths tonnes of iron ore, 724 ths tonnes of sugar, 697 ths tonnes of coal, 647 ths tonnes of mineral fertilizers, and other cargoes.

Iron ore handling increased by 8.9% year-on-year during the reporting period, which was more than twice the 3.7% year-on-year growth for all Russian sea ports according to ASOP. Raw sugar handling continued to rise, up 30.3% year-on-year for the ten month period, vs. the 18.8% year-on-year increase at the end of 3Q 2013, driven by a deficit of domestic sugar-beet supply.

General cargo

General cargo volumes in 10M 2013 amounted to 8,720 ths tonnes. Ferrous metals and non-ferrous metals volumes were 7,064 ths tonnes and 877 ths tonnes, respectively. The 2.3% year-on-year decrease in ferrous metals handling was due to an overall decrease in export of this cargo; all Russian sea ports saw handling decrease by 17.5% year-on-year during the first 10 months of 2013, according to ASOP.

Containers

NCSP Group's total container throughput in January-October 2013 was 508 ths TEU, compared to 517 ths TEU a year earlier.