Bruce Barnard, Special Correspondent | Jun 25, 2012 10:49AM EDT
Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port’s first quarter earnings soared 48 percent from a year ago as Russia’s largest port operator handled record cargo volume to boost its share of the nation’s seaborne traffic.
The privately held group earned $174 million before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization; consolidated revenue grew 18 percent from the first three months of 2011 to $275 million.
Net profit of the London-listed company increased 76 percent to $253 million.
NCSP’s traffic grew 10.4 percent to a quarterly record of 41 million metric tons, despite severe weather conditions at the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk that halted the transshipment of some cargoes for more than 30 days.
The group’s share of total Russian traffic increased to more than 32 percent from 29 percent in the first three months of 2011.
Cargo growth continued into the second quarter, rising by 6 percent in the first five months to 68.4 million tons.
NCSP, which also operates the Baltic port of Primorsk, handled 157 million tons of cargo in 2011, making it Europe’s third largest port operator.
While it dominates Russian bulk cargo traffic, NCSP is a relatively small player in the container market, with traffic declining in the first five months to 262,000 20-foot-equivalent units from 270,000 TEUs in the same period in 2011.
The Summa group, which owns 50.1 percent of NSCP in a joint venture with state-owned pipeline company Transneft, is in the final stages of a $1.4 billion takeover of Russian shipping and transport group Fesco, the owner of a container terminal in the Pacific port of Vladivostok.
Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.