TALLINN - The Port of Tallinn, the largest in the Baltics, has announced that it was considering the construction of a new passenger terminal in the vicinity of the old port, while the CEO said he has met with leading international port operators to tell them of opportunities at the port.
Tallinn's port is keen to boost passenger volume by re-launching a route to St. Petersburg in the next couple years and is eyeing a new terminal that could handle the turnover.
CEO Ain Kaljurand said it was likely that the Tallinn-St. Petersburg route would be launched again in the upcoming years, and in his estimation it could increase the number of passengers shuffling through the port each year by 1 million.
In 2006 the Port of Tallinn handled 6.7 million passengers, down 3.5 percent year-on-year. Kaljurand said he believes that number will return to the 7-million threshold this year in light of several shipping companies' plans to introduce new vessels.
Statistics for the first two months of the year lend credence to Kaljurand's hopes, as the port served 685,000 passengers, up 0.7 percent year-on-year. Travelers to and from Helsinki accounted for nearly 88 percent of the volume.
During January and February the port handled 7.5 million tons of cargo, up 16 percent year-on-year. Bulk goods accounted for most of the gains, as they soared 48 percent to 2.2 million tons. Coal-handling was also robust, increasing 34 percent to 1.3 million tons.
Oil remains the Port of Tallinn's largest cargo group, as some 4.4 million tons were handled in the first two months of the year.
Last year the port handled a record 41.3 million tons of cargo, up 4 percent year-on-year. Earnings amounted to 596 million kroons (38 million euros).
Kaljurand said Feb. 28 that he met with executives from Hutchison and Dubai Port World last week and both were interested in opportunities in Estonia. He said the port wanted to convince major investors to establish logistics centers in the Port of Muugu, part of Tallinn's port.
Hutchison is the world's largest container handler. All Baltic port operators agree that container cargo is one of the keys to future growth as trade between the EU and China increases.
Meanwhile, a report by the Port of Tallinn, quoted by BNS last week, comparing Baltic ports showed that Estonia's main port has kept its third place position among the top terminals in the eastern Baltic Sea region.
As expected, Primorsk Port, an oil terminal launched in 2001, was in first place, handling nearly 66 million tons of cargo 's all liquid 's in 2006, up 15 percent year-on-year.
The fourth and fifth largest ports were in Ventspils and Riga.
In all, ports in the eastern Baltic Sea region handled 346 million tons of cargo in 2006.
