Freeport of Riga welcomes LNG-fuelled vessels from Containerships
- Published
by Admin
The Freeport of Riga on Tuesday (16 July) said it welcomes the liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuelled box vessels of CMA CGM group subsidiary Containerships to its facility due to their environmental and commercial benefits.
The first two 100% LNG-powered vessels Containerships Polar and Containerships Nord will arrive at the Port of Riga three times per week, and it is expected that a third LNG vessel will join them in the autumn.
As the new LNG vessels are one of the largest container ships that make regular stops at the Port of Riga, it is expected that the volume of container cargo will also increase.
“One of our development priorities requires use of environmentally-friendly technologies, and the other – significant increase in the number of handled containers,” Marti?s Ziemanis, Deputy CEO of the Freeport of Riga.
“The development programme adopted last year sets an ambitious goal: increasing the volume of container cargo to 1 million handled TEU units per year in 10 years.
“As this volume keeps growing annually, we believe that this goal is achievable. During the first six months of this year, we managed to achieve record-high turnover by handling 238.2 TEU units, which is 5.6 % more than a year ago.”
The manager of Containerships in Latvia and Estonia notes use of LNG for shipping purposes is the latest and greenest technology, and has become increasingly popular in the world.
“Some European markets shipments of Containerships customers are already delivered by LNG powered vehicles,” says Kristaps Jakov?evs.
“Together with the first LNG-powered container vessels, they will form a complete cycle of green logistics. In the nearest future, we also plan to introduce an LNG car fleet in Latvia, reducing the environmental impact and shifting towards 100% green logistics.
“Moreover, the new LNG vessels that arrive at the Port of Riga have a larger tonnage allowing us to offer better services to our customers and allowing Latvian exporters to better plan their supply chains and cargo volumes to the UK, Benelux countries, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Portugal.”
Photo credit: Containerships
Published: 23 July, 2019
