"We set a historical record in September, the last month was very good – we handled more than 3.7 million tons of cargo, the growth rate was 6%. This was due to the few vessels loaded with grain in early September, with an impetus from solid growth of liquid cargo, general cargo and somewhat smaller increase in fertilizers. Over the first three quarters of this year, the growth remains at 5%, and this increase was due to bulk cargo," Vaitkus told a news conference on Thursday.
The Lithuanian seaport handled 31.104 million tons of cargo in January through September, up by 5% year-on-year, while the volume in September alone went up by an annual 6% to 3.707 million tons, the port's authority said.
Bulk cargo volumes jumped by 15.5% to 13.9 million tons in the first three quarters of this year, liquid cargo declined by 3.4% to 8.4 million tons, general cargo by 0.8% to 9.1 million tons, while respective numbers in September alone fell by 9.3% to 1.7 million tons, soared by 47% to 895,000 tons and grew by 9.5% to 1.1 million tons.
