Recently published research from Business Monitor International, "Latvia Shipping Report Q2 2013", is now available at Fast Market Research

Boston, MA -- (SBWire) -- 06/07/2013 --The port of Riga is set to hold the top position in Latvia's maritime sector in terms of both total tonnage and container throughput in 2013, after another year of healthy growth in 2012.

Riga has a strong position to build on in 2013, enhanced by robust year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in total throughput and a double-digit increase in box volumes in 2012.

Over the medium term, we project further throughput growth at the port of Riga. Ventspils, the country's second largest port in terms of the total throughput, continued its recovery in 2012 and reached tonnage levels close to the ones it had before the downturn.

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Headline Industry Data

- 2013 port of Riga tonnage throughput forecast to decline by 1.8%, over the medium term we project a 4.4% increase.
- 2013 port of Riga container throughput forecast to grow 12.5%, over the medium term we project a 54.0% increase.
- 2013 total trade growth forecast at 3.60%.

Key Industry Trends

Gateway Potential to Be Further Developed: Throughput at Latvia's major ports is still posting healthy growth figures and the country is keen on expanding its role as a gateway for CIS countries' trade, continuing to cater for Russia's bulk exports and also possibly a percentage of Russia's container imports.

Recently Latvian officials conducted a number of meetings with representatives of Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan to boost freight transits through and investments into the country's ports.

Strong 2012 But Slow Start To 2013: Throughput at Latvia's major ports increased comfortably in 2012. However 2013 has so far proved less optimistic, as it started rather slowly, with 6.55mn tonnes of cargo handled in January 2013 - a y-o-y decrease of 6.4%.

Risks to Outlook

The base for growth at Latvia's ports stems from BMI's positive outlook for the country's economy, with real GDP growth of 4.3% anticipated for 2013. Our positive medium-term forecast for Latvia's ports' throughput also holds upside risks, with Latvia getting better connected, displaying a solid domestic demand outlook and developing its role as a gateway for cargo to and from Russia and Central Asia. This upside risk is further enhanced by Russia's membership of the World Trade Organization, on the back of which Latvian ports expect to tranship more of its neighbour's imports and exports.

The main risk to our forecasts for Latvia remains the persistent eurozone sovereign debt crisis. A further deepening of the crisis would pose downside risks to most of our forecasts for Latvia's economy and our port throughput projections.

Russia's development of the Ust-Luga port near St Petersburg, as it seeks to handle a larger percentage of its own trade needs, creates another downside risk to our forecasts as it is set to place downward pressure on Baltic states' port throughput.

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