In 2022, 1.04 million containers were handled in Klaipėda, compared to 925,000 in St Petersburg which saw a dramatic drop in shipments following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“Last year was a record year: over one million containers were transhipped in Klaipėda,” Latakas told the Elta news agency. According to him, Gdańsk remains the biggest port in the eastern Baltic Sea region.
St Petersburg saw an 85-percent drop in container throughput compared to 2021, Bloomberg reported in November last year.
“There are barely any containers arriving at Russia’s formerly busiest port,” Vincent Stamer, a researcher at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, told Bloomberg. “That’s because St Petersburg is so exposed to European trade.”
According to the port’s CEO Latakas, Klaipėda has seen a sharp decrease in fertilizer exports due to sanctions on Belarusian exports which were shipped via the Baltic port. However, the drop was balanced by a growth in container and natural gas shipments.
Meanwhile, the port also saw a change in its import-export ratio. In 2021, imports accounted for 28 percent of cargo loaded in Klaipėda, rising to 41 percent last year, according to Latakas.