Shipping in Latvia within the project BalticSCOPE www.balticscope.eu * The information presented is the working exercise of the cross-border maritime spatial planning discussions and can not be treated as the official opinion of the European Commission and the Member States involved in the consortium of the Baltic SCOPE project.

1. Shipping sector in Latvia
2nd CBC Planners Meeting,
Tallin, 24-25 August, 2015

2. Current status in Shipping
sector
• Latvian port management system is designed by
so called “landlord” principle. The land and water
area of port are owned by the state and local
government, who transfers it for the
management to Port Authority;
• Large ports have special arrangements with the
status of tax incentives;
• Shipping is regulated having set the principle
that shipping is allowed everywhere unless it is
forbidden

3. Current use: Ports
• There are three large (Riga, Ventspils, Liepaja)
and seven small ports (Engure, Lielupe,
Mērsrags, Pavilosta, Roja, Salacgriva, Skulte);
• The greatest turnover is composed by bulk
cargos (35.85 million tons), followed by liquid
cargo (26.53 million tons) and general cargo
(11.79 million tons);
• Largest volume of cargos are petroleum
products (34.37%), followed by coal (28.9%) and
other goods (including building materials,
cement, crushed stone, etc.).

4. Future needs and use

5. Current use: Shipping
density
• According to AIS data, most intensive traffic in
Latvian waters is on the route from the Port of
Riga in the direction of the Irbe Strait, in Irbe
Strait and the waters opposite the port of
Ventspils;
• There are no official shipping lines stipulated in
national legislation;
• Survey is ongoing on shipping lines of 1st and
2nd category according to HELCOM plan

6. Shipping density in CBC case

7. Future needs and use
• Development of on land infrastructure (roads
and railways) is crucial to ensure growth of ports
turnover;
• Increase of shipping density is not expected,
growth in cargos turnover is expected due to the
increase of vessel capacity;
• Regulations of Cabinet of Ministers will be
elaborated and adopted in order to ensure that a
fixed structure, such as wind farms, are not
installed on densely used shipping lanes

8. Transboundary topics/places
for discussion:
• Irbe straight as one of the most intensive
shipping areas in the case study – increased risk
of ship collision and it potential impact on MPA
(LV-EE)
• New installations in Baltic proper – how that
could impact potential of vessel traffic increase
(LV-SE)

9. Thank you for attention!