3,931 ships enter Georgian ports, terminals in Q1

Georgian ports and terminals received 3,931 ships in the first quarter of 2023, the National Statistics Office of Georgia said on Friday.

Of this number, 39.7 percent were general cargo carriers, 28.2 percent liquid bulk freight vessels, 23.7 percent container ships and the remaining 8.4 percent comprised dry bulk carriers, specialised ships and tugs.

Ports and terminals across the country received 43.1 percent more container ships year-on-year, 5.4 percent more general cargo carriers, 17.8 percent less liquid bulk freight vessels, and 32.4 percent less dry bulk vessels, the Office also said.

The figures also showed 16.3 percent of the ships arriving at the facilities sailed under the flag of Panama, 16.3 percent under the flag of Liberia, 13.7 percent under the flag of Turkey, 8.4 percent were operated under the Maltese flag, 5.3 percent flew the flag of Bulgaria and 5.1 percent were under the flag of Russia. 

In other figures, ports and terminals of the country processed 3,505,600 tonnes of cargo - 17.8 percent less than the indicator of the same period in 2022. 

In the first quarter of the year, the ports served 1.2 million passengers, or 55.8 percent less than the corresponding figure of the last year.