PJSC Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port Group (“NCSP Group” or the “Group”) (LSE: NCSP, Moscow Exchange: NMTP) announces its consolidated operating results for January – October, 2012. The Group’s total cargo turnover increased 3.6% year-on-year (y-o-y) and amounted to 134.4 million tonnes.  Oil products, ferrous metals and grain were among major gainers and accounted for a significant share of the increase in cargo handling, with 9.7%, 23.2% and 76.4% y-o-y growth, respectively. 

NCSP Group CEO Rado Antolovic said: “NCSP has maintained higher y-o-y cargo throughput in January-October, 2012 amidst a weakening global economy, unfavourable weather conditions, and Sochi 2014 Olympics-related priorities affecting railway deliveries in the South of Russia. This was achieved largely due to the universal nature of our port facilities, which allows for handling a wide variety of cargoes and enables us to respond quickly to changes in the market situation. This year, increased handling of ferrous metals and a number of other cargoes alongside with strong performance in the oil, oil products and grain segments enabled us to set off the effect of the declining market for iron ore and fertilizers.  In order to enhance operational efficiency and ensure strong, resilient cargo throughput the Group is investing in further cargo base diversification, capacity expansion and service quality improvement, in line with its long-term master plan.”

Liquid cargo

The transhipment of liquid cargo in the reporting period increased by 2.9 million tonnes (or 2.7%) year-on-year to the total of 110.8 million tonnes. Crude oil handling in January-October, 2012 totalled 94.7 million tonnes which represents a 1.3% increase from the same period of 2011. Oil products turnover grew by a solid 9.7% year-on-year, reaching 15.4 million tonnes with fuel oil throughput in Novorossiysk and diesel volumes in Primorsk being major drivers.

Bulk cargo

In total, NCSP handled 10.3 million tonnes of bulk cargo in January – October, 2012, up 1.7% year-on-year. Growth can be attributed largely to grain, handling of which surged up by 76.4% or 3.1 million tonnes from the previous year to the total of 7.1 million tonnes. 

To further diversify the Group’s cargo base, this August NCSP started handling coal, one of the major drivers of turnover growth at Russian sea ports. Since then the Company has handled 87.2 thousand tonnes of coal at its Novorossiysk facilities.

General cargo

In January - October, 2012, general cargo throughput increased by 18.5% year-on-year and reached 9.1 mln tonnes.  Handling of ferrous metals accounted for the bulk of this growth and totalled 7.2 mln tonnes, up 1.4 mln tonnes, if compared to the previous year. Timber turnover demonstrated a sound 25.4% year-on-year increase and amounted to 623.9 thousand tonnes.

Containers

In the first ten months of 2012, NCSP increased its container throughput to 517 thousand TEU, up 5.4% year-on-year. Baltiysk Container Terminal was the major contributor to this growth with a strong performance resulting in a 12.4% increase from the previous year. To capitalize on fast growing container segment, the Group continues with the plans to expand container terminals in Novorossiysk and Baltiysk, both currently operating to capacity.

For your convenience, NCSP Group's monthly cargo turnover data is available in Excel format on the company’s website and in the table below:

NCSP Group Cargo Turnover in January-October, 2012

(’000 tonnes)