Profit Plunges At Russia’s Novorossiysk Port

Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port’s net profit plunged by more than a third in the first half of 2012 as Russia’s largest port company booked foreign exchange losses that outweighed higher cargo traffic.
 Profit declined 36.6 percent to $141 million in the six months to June 30 from $222.5 million in the year-earlier period as revenue grew 9.5 percent to $541.1 million.
 Changes in the ruble-dollar exchange rate resulted in a $14 million loss, compared with a $142.4 million profit in the first half of 2011.

Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port’s net profit plunged by more than a third in the first half of 2012 as Russia’s largest port company booked foreign exchange losses that outweighed higher cargo traffic.
 Profit declined 36.6 percent to $141 million in the six months to June 30 from $222.5 million in the year-earlier period as revenue grew 9.5 percent to $541.1 million.
 Changes in the ruble-dollar exchange rate resulted in a $14 million loss, compared with a $142.4 million profit in the first half of 2011.
The London-listed company earned $318.6 million before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, a 31.1 percent increase on the $243.1 million earned a year ago.
Traffic at the Black Sea Port of Novorossiysk and Primorsk and Baltiysk in the Baltic grew 6.2 percent to 81.6 million metric tons, driven by a 100 percent surge in grain shipments, due to Russia lifting an export ban in July 2011 that outweighed the impact of port shutdowns because of bad weather at the beginning of the year.
 A 26.8 percent increase in shipments of ferrous metals and modest growth in crude oil and oil products traffic helped the company boost its share of the Russian port market to 30 percent from 29 percent a year ago and consolidate its position as Europe’s third-largest port operator.
 Container traffic stalled, however, growing just 1.6 percent to 319,000 20-foot-equivalent units.
 The company said it is on track to meet its 2014 target to increase oil and oil handling capacity by 15 million tons, bulk capacity by 1 million tons and annual container capacity by 630,000 TEUs.