The B altic ports play an important role in the economy of countries with access to the B altic Sea. It is through them that the main trade flows, so a lot depends on their modernity and infrastructure equipment. In this article we will talk about the main ports in this direction.
Commodity turnover situation
In recent years, the ports of the B altic States, that is, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, are going through hard times. Their profitability, profits, and turnover are declining. Back in 2002, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would do everything to ensure that all oil, without exception, was exported only through domestic ports, and not the ports of the B altic states, as it was at that time. Since then, this task has been systematically solved.
The first step was taken back in 2002, when oil terminals were opened in Primorsk. But even under this condition, the statements of the head of state at that time seemed hardly feasible. After all, since Soviet times, the lion's share of oil and oil products went through the ports of Latvia. In total, for exportabout 30 million tons were shipped annually.
At the moment the situation has changed radically. By 2015, all the B altic ports accounted for no more than 9 million tons of oil and oil products, in 2016 these figures dropped to 5 million tons, and in 2018 they practically disappeared. The entire oil traffic was redirected exclusively to domestic ports, to correct the situation with the domestic economy, support employers and local infrastructure.
B altic losses
B altic ports have been losing Russian suppliers regularly since the 2000s. Domestic hydrocarbons were the very first to leave from there, which was facilitated by the implementation of such large infrastructure projects as "South" and "North". Even then, the head of Transneft, Nikolai Tokarev, stated that the state had set the task of loading domestic ports to the maximum, since they had a surplus of capacities.
As a result, in a short time, the total volume of pipeline transportation was increased by one and a half million tons. At the same time, it was decided to transfer the capacities that were not used directly for crude oil to intensive pumping of oil products towards the Russian coast. As a result, as Tokarev noted, all Russian cargo flows from the B altic ports were redirected to Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiysk. First of all, Riga and Ventspils suffered from this.
The reorientation of Russian business to domestic capacities de alt a tangible blow to the B altic countries. Themeconomic well-being depended not least on the transit of Russian cargo. The list of B altic ports that suffered first of all was headed by the Latvian coastal cities, since the ports of Lithuania still received a significant load due to the Belarusian cargo traffic, which was mainly directed to Klaipeda.
Estimates of experts are confirmed by statistical data. Already at the beginning of 2016, the cargo turnover of the Freeport of Riga decreased by 11.5 percent, Ventspils - by a quarter, and Tallinn - by 15.5 percent. At the same time, the Lithuanian Klaipeda even managed to demonstrate a certain growth - by almost 6 percent.
According to the estimates of the Riga authorities alone, they missed 40 million euros due to the loss of Russian cargo, which was very sensitive across the country. In general, the transit of goods brings about one billion dollars a year to the Latvian economy.
Opportunities and turnover
It is worth noting that all this takes place in ports that have been designed for maximum loading and a large flow of goods for many years. The total cargo turnover of the B altic ports is impressive. In the three largest ports, it is about 76 million tons per year.
The Freeport of Riga, located on the eastern coast of the B altic Sea, handles 33.7 million tons of cargo. Through Klaipeda, which is considered the largest and most important transport center of Lithuania, about 24 million tons. And it is he who is consideredthe northernmost ice-free port of the entire B altic Sea.
About 19 million tons a year passes through the port of Tallinn. This is the turnover of the B altic ports.
Domino effect
Rejection of transshipment through the ports of the B altic states led to a drop in indicators in other types of transportation. The volumes of Latvian railways have fallen by 20 percent, and this has a domino effect on the service sector as well. Employment is declining and unemployment is rising accordingly. According to experts, the loss of only one job in the transport sector entails the loss of two full-time workers in the service sector.
Moreover, if Latvia suffered the most, then the loss of oil flows did not affect Estonia and Lithuania so much. In Klaipeda, initially, the volumes of transshipment of Russian cargo did not exceed six percent of the total cargo turnover. Therefore, when it became known that Russia would no longer use the ports of the B altic states, no heavy losses were felt in Klaipeda. Moreover, oil and oil products have never been transported here anyway.
The port in Tallinn has a so-called "fuel oil" specialization. At the same time, Transneft primarily exports light oil products. Therefore, the catastrophic drop in cargo turnover here is associated with a decrease in orders from partners in the European Union, rather than with the influence of Russian business.
At the same time, indirectly, Moscow's decision to abandon the B altic ports affected both Estonia and Lithuania. The point is that afterto transfer the transit of oil products to Russian ports, competition between all B altic ports has sharply increased in other segments of trade turnover. So, according to the law of communicating vessels, this eventually affected everyone without exception.
European sanctions
To solve these problems, everyone began in their own way. Someone by introducing more attractive tariffs and improving the quality of work, some went to make their own population pay for the anti-Russian course of the B altic politicians. This opinion, at least, is expressed by the majority of domestic political scientists.
This became especially noticeable after 2015, when the European Union imposed economic sanctions against the Russian Federation. It is obvious that the well-being of the B altic coastal cities largely depends on favorable relations between Russia and Europe. In this case, the sanctions began to influence the fact that the drop in transit and cargo turnover only increased.
Moreover, this was also affected by the fact that the B altic countries themselves, as members of the EU, were forced to support the sanctions. A striking example is the Estonian icebreaker Botnica. After Estonia supported the sanctions against the Russian Federation, he was unable to fulfill the contracts concluded with Rosneft. As a result, his downtime in the port of Tallinn began to cost the state treasury a loss of 250 thousand euros every month.
Russian harbors
Against this background, the cargo turnover inRussian ports. At the same time, the main increase comes through the ports located on the Black Sea, it was they who began to be widely used in the first place. The southern coastal cities began to systematically take over the cargo turnover that existed between Russia and the European Union.
Outstanding results were demonstrated by domestic ports in the B altic. For example, Ust-Luga is a port bypassing the B altic States, in which large investments are made, it can already compete with the Tallinn harbor. For ten years, the cargo turnover in it has grown 20 times, now amounting to almost 90 million tons per year.
Capacity of domestic ports
In recent years, the capacity of all domestic ports has been increasing. On average, 20 million tons per year. Such impressive results were achieved thanks to serious investments in their infrastructure. Annually they amounted to about 25 billion rubles. At the same time, it was always especially noted that all projects are implemented within the framework of public-private partnership, that is, for one ruble from the treasury, there are two rubles of private investment.
It is worth noting that a lot has already been done in redirecting domestic coal, hydrocarbons and fertilizers to Russian harbors. However, there is still more work to be done in other segments.
Infrastructure Development
An important role in this is played by Russia's desire to develop its own infrastructure in this area. The scheme of container transportation through the ports of the B altic States, which included not only the ports, but also the Latvian Railway, no longer works.
Dealing another tangible blow to the cargo transportation of these states should be the implementation of a project to create a customs warehouse that meets all modern requirements. The company "Phoenix" will be engaged in this work. It will appear in the large port of St. Petersburg, where two large customs warehouses with large capacities are already operating.
All these years, the property of Russian business in the B altic ports has been systematically reduced. At the moment, it has been reduced to almost nothing.
Fight for China
Chinese transit remains an important issue for both the B altic and Russian ports. This is a tidbit that everyone wants to grab for themselves. Most of the cargo from China goes through container transportation, at the moment about half of this volume falls on the B altic States.
In the same Tallinn, they account for 80 percent of the total container turnover, in Riga - 60 percent, and in the Finnish port of Hamina-Kotka - about a third. Recently, the situation in this highly profitable segment has been aggravated. Especially after the opening of the new Russian port of Bronka. It is planned that he will be able to reorient cargo from the rest of the B altic ports.
Container shipping
It is noted that this will not be as easy as with raw materials. In recent years, the transport of containers and cars has declined significantly, helped by the imperfection of the Russian customs administration and more attractive conditions for transshipment and storage inoverseas ports.
Russia expects to win competition for the transit of Chinese goods through the implementation of the "New Silk Road" project. According to experts, this is the only way to exclude Latvia from this chain. A lot is already being done for this, for example, a dry port has been equipped in the Kaliningrad region. It is being built in the Chernyakhovsk industrial park.
Dry port
With the help of this port in Chernyakhovsk, there will be a real opportunity to transport goods from Asia to the European Union exclusively through Russian territory.
In Chernyakhovsk, containers will be reloaded from the Russian railway gauge to the European one. It is assumed that the traffic will be about 200 thousand cars per year. And this is only the first time. That's about six to seven trains every day. At the moment, work on the creation of the engineering infrastructure of this facility is already being actively completed.
