OREANDA-NEWS. March 22, 2012. NCSP Group (LSE: NCSP, MICEX: NMTP) reports consolidated operating results for January-February 2012.

NCSP Group’s total cargo turnover in the reporting period amounted to 26.9 million tons which represents an increase of 3.5 million tons or 15% versus January-February 2011.

It should be noted that during this period, the Group could not normally operate in Novorossiysk due to bad weather conditions for 14.7 days in total.

Growth in general cargo turnover in January-February 2012 totaled 0.4 million tons or 33%. The growth was attributed to an increase of turnover in ferrous metals by 0.5 million tons (48%) which offset the decline in timber handling (-12.3 thousand tons), non-ferrous metals (-5 thousand tons) and other cargoes (-18 thousand tones).

According to Deputy CEO for marketing and sales of PJSC NCSP Rado Antolovic: "Now we are seeing recovery in ferrous metals, the demand for which has fallen significantly in 2011."

In January-February 2012 liquid cargo volumes increased by 2.4 million tons or 11.9% versus the same period of last year.

Crude oil transshipment by NCSP Group in January 2012 totaled 19.1 million tons, which represents an increase of 11.3% compared to January-February 2011 volumes. This growth is attributed to the increase in volumes of Primorsk Trade Port Ltd by 1.7 million tons or by 16.9%.

Volumes of oil products transshipment across the Group increased by 13% or by 0.4 million tons. The total volume of oil products handled during the reporting period amounted to 3.4 million tons, of which 1.2 million tons attributed to diesel transshipment by Primorsk Trade Port Ltd.

According to Rado Antolovic "In February 2012 the NCSP Group Management has reduced the slippage in turnover schedule for containers, which was impossible to handle during bad weather conditions."

The Group’s container traffic in TEU terms decreased by 3.9% versus January-February 2011 and totaled 89 thousand TEU. (January 2012 year-on-year decrease amounted to 14.6%).

In January-February 2012 the Group handled 1.25 million tons of grain.

Rado Antolovic commented: “increase in operational efficiency and new social policy of NCSP Group management is already yielding results.

In extreme weather conditions, our team was able to maintain growth rates of turnover in Novorossiysk and Primorsk. Average daily turnover in February 2012 was 20% higher than in February 2011. As a result, the Group’s total cargo turnover growth rate was 3 times higher than that of the industry average.”