07 февраля 2024 — 12:00
The volume of cargo transportation in Estonia decreased sharply in 2023: in ports there was a 31% drop, on the country's railways — by 43%. Cargo transportation through Estonian ports without transit from Russia collapsed by 31%. Such data is provided by the Estonian Statistics Department, writes Delovoy Peterburg.
The main reason is the cessation of transit of goods from Russia due to the Ukrainian conflict.
In 2023, 23 million tons of cargo were transported through the ports of Estonia — 31% less than in 2022, when 33 million tons were transported.
Estonian railways transported 10.1 million tons of cargo, a drop of 43% compared to 2022.
The volume of transit by Estonian railways began to decline sharply from 2022: they amounted to 3.8 million tons compared with 9.5 million tons of transit cargo in 2021. Last year, transit dropped to 2.1 million tons.
Instead of petroleum products, Estonian railways now transport ore and other mining products, as well as food, the report says.
The cargo turnover of the port of Tallinn fell by 29% last year, or by 5 million tons of cargo. The reason was called the general economic downturn and sanctions against Russia and Belarus, while it was noted that in the short term it is "not possible" to replace Russian transit.
Ports in Latvia also turned out to be dependent on Russian transit. Last year, 19.6% less cargo was transported through the ports of the republic than a year earlier, and freight transportation by rail collapsed by 27.6%.