The economic slowdown in Russia is having a knock-on effect at a number of ports in the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, particularly in the form of transhipment, according to the Journal of Commerce.
Russia’s economic difficulties were felt most heavily by terminal operators in Q1, 2015, when Russian operator Global Ports saw a dip in its container volumes by more than 4% to around 2.6 million.
In total, container traffic fell by 14% in the three Baltic states in H1, 2015 to less than 545,000 TEU.
The port to receive the largest blow from the economic crisis was Estonia’s Tallinn seaport, where traffic dropped by more than 22%.
Across all three states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, total TEU traffic amounted to 1.1 million in 2014.
Europe’s ports as a whole have seen small increases in their container volumes in recent years, as they begin to recover significantly from the financial crisis of 2009.
