Rostock Port records 10% increase

With 23.7 million tonnes (gross) of goods handled last year, the companies at Rostock seaport recorded a ten percent increase against 2009. ‘Things are gradually looking up after the slump of 2009, although we are still quite a bit away from the level of 2008’, says Ulrich Bauermeister, Managing Director of Hafen-Entwicklungsgesellschaft Rostock mbH. The annual results in dry bulk, liquid and ferry goods, the main cargo types providing much of the handling, achieved double-digit growth rates. Handling of liquid goods increased by 15 percent to 4.6 million tonnes. Dry bulk achieved an annual result of 6 million tonnes, which corresponds to an 11 percent increase compared to 2009. ‘In the coming years we will focus on stabilising the cargo handling particularly of these two main cargo types on a high level and to further increase amounts after the deepening of the navigational channel,’ says Ulrich Bauermeister. Another handling decline of 11 percent occurred in general cargo: 365,000 tonnes were recorded until the end of 2010. ‘Judging by the potential of Rostock port that is an unsatisfactory result,’ says the managing director of the port development company. There were again increases in wheeled cargo of ferry and ro-ro goods. On the whole the amount went up from 11.8 million tonnes in 2009 to 12.7 million tonnes last year (2008: 16 million tonnes). ‘The port of Rostock was not spared the slump of the world economy in 2009. The ground rule for economic upturns as well as downturns is that cargo handling grows or falls two to two and a half times as much as the GDP. That’s the range in which we find ourselves,’ explains Bauermeister. The share of wheeled cargo in the total handling of Rostock Seaport was 54 percent last year. The number of passengers carried on the lines to Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Poland decreased by just under 40,000 to 2.06 million passengers. While the Rostock-Trelleborg route was able to record slight increases, passenger numbers from and to Denmark and Finland decreased slightly.