According to the port and shipping authority another 1.7 million tonnes were moved at the cargo and fishing port, the chemical port and other port facilities in Rostock.
Rostock seaport
At 22.3 million tonnes (gross) of goods handled last year, the companies at Rostock seaport recorded a six percent decline against 2010.While the annual results in ferry, ro-ro and general cargo handling showed increases there was a slight decline in dry bulk and a large decline in liquid cargo. ‘Especially the sharp drop in crude oil handling has spoiled the handling results of the seaport for the year 2011. As long as tankers with a loading capacity of 120,000 tonnes can not enter the port of Rostock due to the insufficient depth of the navigable channel, currently 16.50 metres, without having been lightened to 80,000 tonnes at another port first, we are at a considerable disadvantage’, states Ulrich Bauermeister, managing director of Hafen-Entwicklungsgesellschaft Rostock mbH.
At 2.9 million tonnes the handling of liquid cargo showed a deficit of 38 percent compared to 2010. Last year the amount of crude oil handled in Rostock went down by 1.7 million tonnes. An annual result of 5.8 million tonnes was achieved in bulk cargo, which means a decline by three percent. ‘While the handling of barley still achieved increases by 140,000 tonnes, wheat and rye amounts declined by 900,000 and 50,000 tonnes, respectively. But due to the tumultuous weather conditions of last year there simply were not enough yields and therefore not enough amounts to be handled’, the managing director of the port development company sums up the results.
On the other hand the port managed to end the decline in the handling of general cargo: 550,000 tonnes were handled in 2011, an increase by 50 percent. The main increases came from the handling of sheet metal, pipes and crane facilities.
“The long-term strategy of strengthening the local cargo volume is beginning to bear fruit’, Ulrich Bauermeister stresses.
There were again increases in wheeled cargo of ferry and ro-ro goods. On the whole the amount went up from 12.7 million tonnes in 2010 to 13 million tonnes, and this despite the withdrawal of the shipping company Tallink from the Rostock-Helsinki traffic in August 2011. The share of wheeled cargo in the total handling of Rostock Seaport was 58 percent last year.
The number of passengers carried on the lines to Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Poland decreased by 50,000 to 2.01 million passengers. While the Rostock-Trelleborg route was able to record slight increases, passenger numbers from and to Denmark and Finland decreased slightly. ‘We expect a turnaround here when the new ferry vessels start operating on the Rostock-Gedser line this spring’, says Ulrich Bauermeister. 7466 ferry, ro-ro, tanker, cargo and cruise vessels called at Rostock Seaport in 2011, of which 5280 were ferry vessels.