Azerbaijan, Baku, May 13 / Trend E.Ismayilov /
In January-April, the Baku International Sea Trade Port saw the passage of 280,000 tons of dry and container cargo, which is more by 4.5 times compared to 16,000 tons in January-April 2009, a source at the port said.
"Significant growth has been observed in the dry cargo transshipment," the source said.
According to the source, the growth is due to increasing cement clinker imports (250,000 tons) from Iran. Around 25,000-26,000 fell to container cargo (2, 500 units), which is 3 times more than the same period last year.
The amount of humanitarian goods has also increased from Europe to Afghanistan. The transportation of humanitarian goods across the Black Sea, Georgia and Azerbaijan, and across the Caspian Sea to Central Asia, has been underway since March 2009.
Their transportation is conducted within the framework of the TRACECA transport corridor in the direction of Afghanistan. The humanitarian goods include medicines, building materials and food products.
The rest of the transshipped dry goods fell to the other types of cargo.
According to the source, in January-March, the port shipped 845,000 tons of ferry cargo, which is 7 percent more than in January-April 2009.
In total, the port shipped 1.72 million tons of cargo in the first quarter of 2010, which is 4 percent more than in January-April2009.
In 2009, the Baku port shipped 2.5 million tons of oil cargo, which is 10 percent less than in 2008. In total, the port shipped 5.1 million tons of cargo in 2009.