Malta-owned port in Riga expanding

A Maltese-owned company is pressing ahead with expansion plans in Latvia, despite a drop in volumes this year, according to Lloyd's List.

A 200-metre quay extension which will increase capacity from 600,000 TEU (20-foot equivalent units) to a million TEU has been slightly put back but only for commercial reasons and not because of the downturn, Baltic Container Terminal Riga (BTC) chairman Marin Hili, was quoted as saying.

"Expansion is our strategy. Things are not as gloomy as many people make them out to be," he told the leading maritime newspaper.

"We are looking to expand more because the potential is still there. We see it as 18 months where things are down and we take the longer-term view.

"There have been no workforce reductions but we have been working to increase efficiency and become more cost effective."

BTC Riga, which is owned by Malta's Mariner Group, was projecting a 27 per cent drop in throughput for the first six months of 2009, but the drop was only 20 per cent, Mr Hili said.

The volume of Russian transit cargo has held up this year, and the terminal gained a new service operated by IMCL, he added.