The port of Ventspils is an Ice-free, deep-water

sea port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ha ...

located in

Ventspils Ventspils (; german: Windau, ; see other names) is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It ...

on Latvia's

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

coast. Its total area is 2451.39 hectares. By

cargo Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including trans ...

turnover it is one of the Baltic Sea's busiest ports. The port of Ventspils became a multimodal port when the harbour was significantly deepened in 1998, reaching a maximum depth of 17.5 meters in the liquid bulk area. This allowed the accommodation of the largest vessels then operating in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

, including

Aframax An Aframax vessel is an oil tanker with a deadweight between 80,000 and 120,000 metric tonnes. The term is based on the Average Freight Rate Assessment (AFRA), a tanker rate system created in 1954 by Shell Oil to standardize shipping contract t ...

-size tankers with maximum 130.000 metric tons deadweight (DWT). The

dry bulk Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. Description Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate form, as a mass of relatively small solids, such as petroleum/ crude oi ...

and general cargo area, with a depth of 16 meters, allows the terminal to accommodate Panamax-type vessels with their load capacities of up to 75.000 DWT. Cargo turnover of Ventspils port (Latvia) for 5 months in 2016 was decreased on 23% - to 9 million tons. Including 5 months of 2016, the volume of transshipment through the terminal Ventspils Nafta termināls decreased by 27%, via Baltic Coal Terminal fell by 45% to 609 thousand tonnes, through the "Ventspils commercial sea port decreased by 32%, through the terminal Ventamonjaks decreased by 50% to 26 thousand tonnes through the terminal Ventall Termināls was reduced by 60%. Cargo turnover of the terminal Ventbunkers decreased by 3%.

The Freeport of Ventspils

Ventspils port is managed by the Freeport of Ventspils, which is supervised by the

Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia 200px, Meeting room of the Government of Latvia in the Palace of Justice The Government of Latvia is the central government of the Republic of Latvia. The Constitution of Latvia ( lv, Satversme) outlines the nation as a parliamentary republic ...

, under various statutory authorities. These include the 1994 ''Law on ports'' (regarding operations and procedures), the 1997 ''Ventspils Freeport Law'' (which provides for businesses within the port), and the 2002 ''Law on'' ''Tax Application in Free Ports and Special Economic Zones,'' which regulates

tax incentive A tax incentive is an aspect of a government's taxation policy designed to incentivize or encourage a particular economic activity by reducing tax payments. Tax incentives can have both positive and negative impacts on an economy. Among the posi ...

s for those businesses within the port.

Infrastructure

Ventspils is on the East-West

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

corridor and part of the Eurasian

transport system A transport network, or transportation network, is a network or graph in geographic space, describing an infrastructure that permits and constrains movement or flow. Examples include but are not limited to road networks, railways, air routes, ...

, as well as European motorway route E22. Ventspils Airport is close by, and Riga International Airport (RIX) is approximately two hours' drive away.

References

External links

* http://www.portofventspils.lv/ {{Ports and harbours of Latvia

Ventspils