VILNIUS - The Port of Klaipeda recently announced that it posted a 4.8 percent decrease in overall cargo handling last year as a result of dwindling grain and oil product deliveries.
In all the port handled 20.2 million tons of cargo, compared with 21.2 million tons in 2003. As with other Baltic ports, grain handling was down due to a poor harvest in Russia and discriminatory rail tariffs, while there was a robust increase in handling containers (up 47 percent), metals, scrap metal and nondurable goods.
Despite the decline, port operators have forecasted that they will see an aggregate 13.5 percent increase in cargo volume this year, based on stevedores' estimates. To ensure that the increase is permanent, port authorities plan to invest 181 million litas (52.5 million euros) in infrastructure improvements this year.
For its part, Klaipedos Nafta, the largest operator at the local port, will try to keep up with increasing competition from Russia's Primorsk terminal and Ventspils by winning a reduction in port fees and railway tariffs for both Mazeikiu Nafta and Belarus' Mozyr refinery.
The operator last week asked the Transportation Ministry for the breaks, saying it needed them to retain big clients. Klaipedos Nafta claims to have received several complaints over excessive seaport fees from Mazeikiu Nafta, the Vakaru Ekspresas daily reported.
"The costs of transporting oil from Klaipeda to Rotterdam far exceed the respective costs from Ventspils or Tallinn," said Ricardas Milvydas, Klaipedos Nafta's director of commerce. "It means that exports via Klaipeda force Mazeikiu Nafta to offer greater discounts to its customers. However, it deprives the oil company of a certain portion of income that could otherwise be earned provided that the company directed its products to other ports."
In 2004, Mazeikiu Nafta's exports via Klaipeda amounted to 4.5 million tons, or over one-fifth of total handling at the port in 2004. Klaipedos Nafta itself handled 6.5 million tons of petroleum products for the year.
With regard to Mozyr refinery, the oil products terminal has only managed to retain it as a client with the help of major discounts, which are increasingly seen as insufficient for the Belarus company.
Klaipedos Nafta has proposed levelling railway tariffs off with the rates applied in neighboring countries. Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways), the national railway operator, levies some $1.6 per ton of freight per 100 kilometers. The respective rate in Estonia is $1.4, while in Latvia it is $1.2.
In the long term, the Port of Klaipeda is set for a major expansion. The Transport Ministry intends to expand it by 32 hectares over the next several years to enhance its competitiveness. Transport Minister Zigmantas Balcytis said in December that the new area will house a passenger terminal, large refrigeration warehouses, three border points, public buildings and possibly a fertilizer packaging or processing facility. A deep-water harbor is also part of the plans.
Balcytis said that the Klaipeda Port Development Council had instructed the port authority to lay down the terms and conditions and calculate the costs necessary to make this territory available for port development. He added that buildings located on the additional land would have to be demolished, making the expansion process legally complicated since part of the buildings are owned by the municipality and part by private owners.
Currently Lithuanian law requires that the port's development projects be carried out through open or closed tenders. Priority will be given to companies operating close to the new area, including the stevedoring firms Bega, Transfosa and Klaipedos Smelte and Klaipedos Nafta.
