In 2017, the volume of shipments undertaken by vessels of North-Western Shipping Company increased by 3.5%, year-on-year, to 5.8 million tons.
Approximately 1.9 million tons (which equals to 33% of the shipping overall) was conducted by the new vessels of NWSC – 10 vessels of DCV36 project (lead ship – “Amethyst”) and 7 vessels of RSD49 “Neva-Leader” project.
The following shipments were conducted by the vessels of NWSC: 2.2 million tons of grain (+22%, year-on-year), 1.0 million tons of ferrous metal (+11%), 0.86 million tons of chemical and mineral fertilizers (+10%), 0.7 million tons of coal (+13%), 0.15 million tons of non-ferrous metals (-65%), 0.16 million tons of timber (-64%), 0.74 million tons of other types of cargo.
A major increase of grain and coal shipping was caused by refocusing of the fleet to transportation of those types of cargo amid favorable market conditions. Increase of ferrous material shipping was caused by revival of that cargo shipping from the Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg to the ports of Baltic States and Poland. An increase of fertilizers shipping was caused by an increase of production of that kind of cargo at the markets of countries of the Baltic and North Seas. A decrease of volume of non-ferrous metals cargo shipping was caused by the switch of several of NWSC vessels to more profitable contracts. A decrease of timber cargo shipping was caused by the reduction of processing of Russian round timber in Finland and shifting of sawn timber loading from the river ports of the North-West region to the sea port of Lomonsov.
The majority of shipping – more than 4.6 million tons which equals to 80% of the overall volume - was formed by export cargo of the shipping company, its quantity growing by 13%. The majority of the exported range of items was formed by grain cargo, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, coal, chemical and mineral fertilizers, timber. The transportation between foreign ports equaled to 0.7 million tons which forms 17% of the overall volume, thus showing a 10% growth.
The volume of import cargo shipping of the shipping company fell by 34% to 0.1 million tons, which was caused by general reduction of import to Russia from the European countries. The import ratio in the general volume of traffic equaled to 1.7% during of the year of 2017.
Intra-Russian domestic shipping was almost not performed during covered period.