No ahoy in Murmansk Port
Russia’s largest Arctic port has its biggest downturn in more than ten years, while neigboring Norwegian ports boost their volumes.
Figures assembled by Patchwork Barents, the regional dataportal, show that Norwegian Arctic ports for the first time in ten years have a bigger goods turnover than neighboring Russian ports.
The Murmansk regional ports in 2014 handled a total volume of 22,7 million tons, a 34 percent drop from the previous year, and the weakest result since 2003.
Furthermore, the negative trend continues in 2015. According to the Russian Ports Association, the Murmansk Port the first three months of the year dropped additionally 9,5 percent compared with the same 2014 period. In 2010, the strategically important Murmansk Port handled as much as 51 million tons.
The lion’s share of regional port turnover is concentrated in the city of Murmansk and the Murmansk Commercial Seaport, which handles primarily coal, oil products, as well as minerals and ores from the regional mining and metallurgy industry. In addition, the region has a far smaller trade port in Kandalaksha. The port of Vitino on the White Sea coast in 2014 came to a standstill as the port management company bankrupted.
The downturn in Murmansk comes as Norwegian Arctic ports have their best times ever. Figures from Patchwork Barents show that more than 40 million tons of goods was handled by ports in the three northernmost Norwegian counties.
The port of Narvik is now the biggest port in the Barents Region in terms of goods volumes. The port in 2014 handled more than 21 million tons, practically all of it iron ore from LKAB’s mines in northern Sweden. Also in Finnmark, the northernmost region in Norway, port volumes are on the increase. In 2014, the Finnmark ports handled more than 9 million tons, of which about 5,5 million tons was handled by the Port of Kirkenes
According to Patchwork Barents, the port volumes in Kirkenes in 2014 more than doubled. Located only few kilometers from the Russian border, the Kirkenes Port serves mainly the Sydvaranger iron ore mine.
Figures from the Botnia Bay show that the Swedish port of Luleå handled a total of 7,5 million tons, while the Finnish Port of Raahe handled 5,07 million.
Further east in Russia, the Port of Arkhangelsk in 2014 handled 4,2 million tons, a five percent decline from 2013, while the Port of Varandey in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug had a solid increase to 5,9 milllion tons.
