March was third best month ever for Port of Kiel

The Port of Kiel is back on track with a total of 1.27 million tons of cargo handled in the first three months of this year – an increase of 13% over the same period of 2009. Dirk Claus, Managing Director of the Port of Kiel (SEEHAFEN KIEL GmbH & Co KG) said: “After last year’s weak first quarter the trend is upwards again in the Port of Kiel. March was one of the best months ever in the history of the Port of Kiel with 514,000 tons handled. The handling figures are also an increase on those of 2008. Of particular note were developments on the Kiel-Klaipeda service.”

Figures for ferry traffic with Scandinavia in the first quarter of this year are also above those for last year. Very encouraging is handling growth of 38% at the Ostuferhafen. The introduction of “Lisco Maxima”, the biggest and most modern RoPax ferry under the Lithuanian flag, has been mainly responsible for that increase.

Kiel was also able to more than double container handling! In the first quarter 5,040 containers were dealt with, compared to 2,342 in the corresponding period of last year.

Bulk cargo handling also showed positive development in the first quarter. Increases in building materials imports, oil products and coal contributed in particular to an 18.13% increase over the same period of 2009.

Sea tourism also made its contribution to the overall positive picture. In the period under review, 6.07% more people were carried in the passenger transport sector. Particularly strong was Color Line’s Kiel-Oslo service which posted an increase of 7.7% over the same period of last year.

(Source: www.jura.it)