Port of Ventspils

Port of Ventspils is the busiest port in the Baltic states

The port of Ventspils is located in the coast of the Baltic sea, it is an ice-free, deep-water Latvian sea port. The total area of the port is 2451.39 ha. According to cargo turnover the port of Ventspils is one of the leading ports of the Baltic Sea, and among the top 20 European ports. In 1997 the port of Ventspils received a free economic zone status, which acted as an investment attraction factor and resulted in tax incentives for businesses.

The port of Ventspils is a multimodal port for any kind of cargo. In 1998 the deepening of the harbour was completed, where the maximum depth of 17.5 m was reached in the liquid bulk area, allowing accommodation of the largest vessels calling the Baltic Sea – Aframax size tankers with maximum 130.000 metric tons deadweight (DWT). The dry bulk and general cargo area with its maximum depth of 16 m allows terminals to accommodate Panamax type vessels with load capacity of up to 75.000 DWT.

Since 2002 the Freeport of Ventspils has been developing the industrialization process.

In the popular British newspaper Financial Times publication FDI Intelligence investigation in 2015 the port of Ventspils has acquired the main prize for the actions in the global reach, for development in industrial building sector and improvements in infrastructure.

Freeport of Ventspils

The port of Ventspils is managed by the Freeport of Ventspils, which is supervised by the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia.

The Freeport of Ventspils is governed by:

Law on ports (1994) - governs Latvian port operations and management procedures, the Freeport Authority structure and the main responsibilities, vessel traffic management and operational control principles, as well as other port related operational issues.

Ventspils Freeport Law (1997) -  in addition to the conditions set out in the Law on Ports, provides procedure for implementing business at the territory of the Freeport of Ventspils.

Law on Tax Application in Free Ports and Special Economic Zones (2002) - determines the procedures for direct and indirect tax incentives for licensed companies at Freeport of Ventspils.

The strategical goals for the Freeport of Ventspils are:

·        To maintain and strenghten the current position of the port in the market of liquid and dry bulk

·        To attract new forms of businesses and services to the port

·        To develop the production activity in the Freeport industrial territory

The future prospects for Ventspils port are linked to the seaward extension of the Northern port, 100 hectares are set for this purpose.

Infrastructure

Ferry lines

Currently Free Port of Ventspils services two regular ferry lines:

• Ventspils – Nynäshamn, 8 times a week, operator: Stena line;
• Ventspils – Travemunde, 2 times a week, operator: Stena line;

Additional information: www.stenaline.lv

Pipelines

Ventspils is linked to oil extraction fields and transportation routes of Russian Federation via system of two pipelines:

• Crude oil pipeline (Polotsk - Ventspils) with annual capacity 16 mln t;
• Oil product pipeline (Polotsk - Ventspils) with annual capacity 6 mln t.

Maintenance and management of the pipelines is carried out by Latvian – Russian joint-stock company LatRosTrans. www.lrt.lv

Road Network

Ventspils has convenient road connections, i.e. main road to the capital of the country Riga, which is located 189 km from Ventspils, as well as European significance two-tract road E22 (Great Britain – the Netherlands – Germany – Sweden (Norkoping) – Ventspils – Moscow), which allows further distribution from Ventspils to Russia and CIS.

Railways

The East – West railway corridor through Ventspils is one of the most utilized in Europe. Each year around 20 million tons of various cargoes are transported via the route. With co-financing of EIB and EBRD, SJSC Latvijas dzelzcels has implemented an important development project - East-West railway corridor througput capacity was increased from 20 mln. tons up to 34 mln. tons.

Industrial production

There are more than 500 hectares intended for use of industrial production in the free port of Ventspils. The area of Ventspils industrial park is adjustable to investors expectations for the production, also it is provided with necessary infrastructure for the production start-up (ready production facilities, electricity, high-performance IT and telecommunications). The land lease is approximately 0.25-0.5% of the lands cadastral value with a buy-out right. In the start-up phase Ventspils High Technology Parks (VHTP) Business Incubator is available for support in infrastructure and services.

There is a multilingual workforce available in Ventspils.

Company	Year	Country	Business sector
ARBO Windows	2014	Latvia	solid wood window and door manufacture; construction
Baltic Forest trading	2004	Sweden	wood processing; building materials
Bio-Venta	2008	Latvia	biodiesel production
Bucher Municipal	2005	Switzerland	production of truck mounted sweepers
Diana Sveces	2004	Denmark	candle manufacture
EUROLCDS	2013	Latvia, Sweden	manufacturing of LCD products
FROLI Baltic	2006	Germany	polyurethane manufacturing
Hydraulik Bauteile Baltic	2008	Germany	production of hydraulic and pneumatic components
Kurzemes granulas	2003	Latvia	production of wood pellets
Malmar Sheet Metal	2006	Belgium	producing of sheet metal parts for automotive
Pobeda Confectionery	2014	Russia	production of chocolate
SQUALIO	2013	Latvia	software testing
Ventspils elektronikas fabrika	2005	Latvia	production of electronic systems and their components
Ventspils High Technology Park - VHTP	2005	Latvia	support services for the development of high-tech companies
Ventspils metināšanas rūpnīca	2012	Ukraine	manufacturing of large-scale steel constructions
Ventspils-Andren	2009	Latvia	large complex structures and fiberglass industrial facilities

Terminals

Liquid cargo terminals

Terminal	Year	Cargoes
Baltic Juice Terminal	2006	liquid food products
Vars	1991	chemical products
Ventall Terminals	2004	chemical products, oil products
Ventamonjaks serviss	2006	ammonia, chemical products, oil products
Ventbunkers	1994	oil, oil products
Ventspils Nafta Terminal LTD	1961	oil products

Dry bulk cargo terminals

Terminal	Year	Cargoes
Baltic Coal Terminal	2008	coal
Kālija parks	1993	mineral fertilizers
Ventspils Commercial Port	1994	coal, ferrous metals, iron ore, peat, raw sugar
Ventspils Grain Terminal	2005	grain

General cargo terminals

Terminal	Year	Cargoes
Noord Natie Ventspils Terminals	2000	containerised cargo, Ro-Ro, timber
Reefer Cargo Terminal	2011	frozen products
Ventplac	1995	dry bulk cargo, peat, roundwood, timber, woodchip

History

For the first time the Port of Ventspils was mentioned in historical chronicles in 1263. The 17th century saw a rapid growth and dynamic development in the port of Ventspils, with more than 135 ships built in the shipyards of Ventspils and sold to European countries during the rule of Duke Jacob Kettler. Ventspils was an important member of the Hanseatic League, a union of North German trading cities. The next period of a very dynamic growth was at the end of the 19th century, when as part of the Russian Empire the port of Ventspils was the first port of the Baltic Sea to be connected with a railway to Russia’s inland – to the cities of Moscow and Rybinsk. During the rule of Soviet Union Ventspils port evolved as a very important handling centre for oil and oil products and was linked to Russian oil fields with an oil pipeline. Later on, the largest terminals in the world for handling liquid chemicals (ammonia) and potassium salt were constructed and operated in Ventspils.

External links

• Free port of Ventspils
• Ventspils