RUSSIA's Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Ports' (NCSP) posted a 15 per cent increase in overall cargo volume to 26.9 million tonnes in January and February, up 3.5 million tonnes year on year despite harsh winter weather that impeded operations and cost more than two weeks operational days.

But container traffic at the Black Sea port declined 3.9 per cent year on year to 89,000 TEU. In January, the year on year fall amounted to 14.6 per cent, said the 4-Traders.com report.

"In extreme weather conditions, our team was able to maintain growth rates of turnover in Novorossiysk and Primorsk. Average daily turnover in February 2012 was 20 per cent higher than in February 2011," said NCSP sales and marketing and sales chief Rado Antolovic.

"As a result, the group's total cargo turnover growth rate was three times that of the industry average," Mr Antolovic said.

Growth in general cargo turnover in January-February 2012 totalled 0.4 million tonnes, up 33 per cent, due to a surge of 48 per cent in the turnover of ferrous metals which amounted to 0.5 million tonnes. This offset the decline in timber handling (-12.3 thousand tonnes), non-ferrous metals (-5 thousand tonnes) and other cargoes (-18 thousand tonnes).

In January-February 2012 liquid cargo volumes increased by 2.4 million tonnes or 11.9 per cent compared to the same period last year. Crude oil transshipment by the NCSP group in January 2012 totalled 19.1 million tonnes, which represents an increase of 11.3 per cent compared to January-February 2011 volumes. This growth was attributed to the volume growth of Primorsk Trade Port Ltd by 1.7 million tonnes, or by 16.9 per cent.