Ekogiria launches operations at Port of Riga

With the first cargo vessel at its berth, SIA Ekogiria has joined the Port of Riga’s stevedoring companies or marine cargo terminals. SIA Ekogiria’s core business is the storage and transhipment of liquid bulk cargo, mainly biofuel.

The first vessel operated by Ekogiria in the Port of Riga was the tanker Johann Essberger, which transported 4200 tonnes of biofuel from the Port of Riga to Rotterdam. It is planned to ship this amount of cargo from the Ekogiria terminal once a month in the future.

SIA Ekogiria has been operating in Latvia since 2023. Previously, the company used the services of other port terminals to load cargo on ships.

Liquid cargo products

After the acquisition of the terminal in the Port of Riga, the company boasts its liquid cargo tanks with a total volume of 8400 m3, a berth for transhipment of seabound cargo and a rail access road with a loading rack for liquid cargo products.

Currently, the main activity of Ekogiria Riga terminal is biofuel transhipment, there are also plans to develop transhipment services for other liquid cargo such as vegetable oils, used cooking oil and diesel fuel.

The terminal receives biofuel from biofuel producers in the Baltic region and European countries. At the terminal the cargo is stored, consolidated and further exported to ports in Western Europe, mainly in the so-called ARA region (Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp).

“Now that we have acquired the terminal, we can provide services to any client interested in transhipment. We have established good cooperation with other terminals in the port. We have plans for joint projects with the neighbouring Riga Universal Terminal. In my opinion, one of the keys to success in working at the port is good cooperation between the port companies,” said Zigurds Erciņš, CEO of SIA Ekogiria.

Upgrading the terminal

The company’s immediate future plans include the renewal and upgrading of the terminal’s infrastructure.

“Before we came here, there was no economic activity for a long time. Therefore, a lot of work and resources are needed to put the terminal’s infrastructure back in order. We have started with the design and installation of new truck scales. We plan to renovate the railway overpass, repair the railway and car access roads, and build a goods storage and truck yard,” continued Zigurds Erciņš.

With the entry of new players such as Ekogiria into the Port of Riga’s liquid cargo handling business, the liquid cargo segment, which has fallen to 5% of the port’s cargo portfolio with the cessation of oil product transit, might revive.

Although the specifics of terminal operations and cargo logistics routes in this segment particularly limit the ability of companies to switch to handling other cargo, port terminals are looking for solutions – currently, the port handles incoming cargo of oil products for distribution in the region or for temporary storage.

This year, the port has received a shipload of oil products from the US, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The handling of vegetable oil and beet molasses has also been started.