Speeding it up in March

13.04.2005

Merely 13 thou. tonnes were lacking to hit a record monthly result of cargo handling at the quays of the Port of Gdansk. Over the last decade, only May 2003 brought the volume standing at 2,374,676 tonnes, whilst March 2005 - 2, 361,676 tonnes.

For the sake of reminder - the record breaking month of March last year saw Gdansk stevedores handle 1,800,353 tonnes. This, therefore, attests to the fact that it is a rare occasion to achieve such a high rate of cargo throughput as was the case in the past month. These favourable results are chiefly spurred by liquid fuels and coal. There were 1,481,259 tonnes of fuels and 553,736 tonnes of coal handled in March this year. Other bulk brought to the quays of the Port of Gdansk amounted to 222,356 tonnes. The least satisfying result is the general cargo volume that last year totaled less than 85 thou. tonnes. The successful outcome in terms of cargo handling boosted the turnover balance in the first quarter of 2005. An overall volume of a wide range of goods handled at the Gdansk quays amounted to 5,885,103 tonnes i.e. 130,182 tonnes more than in the first quarter of 2004.

- The largest share is taken by liquid fuels - says Marek Czernowski, Chief Dispatcher of the Port of Gdansk Authority SA. Already this year, they accounted for 3,378,460 tonnes. In 2004 we handled 9,600 thou. tonnes of this cargo, whereas this year we expect to exceed the mark of 10 million tonnes, therefore, in the coming months it is necessary to increase the turnovers. In 2004 we felt deeply apprehensive about a drop in the coal handling, even by 50%. Fortunately, at the end of the first quarter of last year that trend was successfully reversed and has been maintained until this day. This year we have already handled 1,499,885 tonnes of coal, whilst in the first quarter of last year merely 863, 644 tonnes. It is also worth to highlight the growth in the coke handling volumes. The rate similar to that recorded for the last year - adds M. Czernowski - has been maintained for so-called other bulk - barely 662 thou. tonnes. The most disappointing result is the general cargo handling. The first quarter brought merely 298 thou. tonnes, whilst the first quarter of 2004 - 787 thou. tonnes.

The figures on cargo handling volumes set out above, after the information from all quays have been compiled and completed, along with the archive data will be available on graphs in the "Cargo statistics" section.