2010 02 03

Ice-free port advantages

Klaipeda gains advantage over the other ports when it comes to the serious frost. Unlike Latvia, Estonia or Russian ports, shipping in Klaipeda continues without icebreakers.

Shipping restrictions due to the frost and ice are placed in many ports including San Petersburg, Primorsk, Viborg, Visock and Ust-Luga. Even 8 icebreakers break up ice in the Russian ports located in the Gulf of Finland. Vessels with less than 2000 horsepower are not allowed to enter the port. An additional charge for ice-breaking is even collected during summer time in Estonia. There is no such thing in Klaipeda port. Unlike the neighboring Kaliningrad and Riga ports, Klaipeda never owned ice-breakers because there was no need for it.

It can be said that cold winters are even useful for Klaipeda port. There have been cases when container cargo flows from other ports were redirected to Klaipeda port because of the particularly low temperatures. Cargo handling companies are the first ones to experience such redirections. Klaipedos Nafta also gets additional demand for its services due to the storage tanks with highly advanced and computerized system.

However there have been such cold winters in the Baltic Sea region that is was impossible to enter even ice-free port of Klaipeda. The whole Baltic Sea was frozen in 1948.