Last year, four new companies started operating in the Liepāja SEZ – the Danish capital furniture manufacturer Kvist Industries, the Lithuanian capital fish processing company Syfud, the Finnish capital metal construction manufacturer Premekon and the Norwegian capital composite products manufacturer Norplast Piemare, which produces salmon farms.
Also last year, five new production facilities with a total area of 20,840 square meters were put into operation in the territory of Liepāja SEZ. Hmieļevskis informed that these are the production facilities of iCotton, GF Powdercoating, MB Betons and RT Metāls, as well as one production building in the Old Harbor business park.
Last year, three more production buildings were under construction – Pumac Liepaja, EB Liepāja and Jensen Metal, which were put into operation earlier this year.
Hmieļevskis emphasized that a total of 15 new production facilities have been built in the territory of Liepāja SEZ since 2017, but five more production facilities are currently under construction. Previously, the Liepāja SEZ had set a goal to build 10 new production facilities during this period, now the goal has been exceeded twice.
This year, the refinement of the local planning of the former “Liepājas metalurgs” territory in the territory of Liepāja SEZ will continue, which is planned to be submitted for approval this year in order to start attracting investments, said Hmieļevskis.
Also this year, the construction of the necessary infrastructure for fishermen in the port and the construction of lighting in the port canals will continue.
Uldis Sesks, Chairman of the Board of Liepāja SEZ, informed that last year 7.06 million tons of cargo were handled in Liepāja port, which is an increase of 6.9% compared to 2020.
Cargo of local origin in Liepāja port accounted for about 50%, the largest volume of cargo is still grain. The largest increase – by 67.1% – was in ro-ro cargo.
Sesks also noted that the container cargo line Liepāja-Gdańsk started operating last year. In total, bulk cargo accounted for 67% of the total volume of port cargo last year, general cargo – 25%, but liquid cargo – 8%.
In 2020, 6.6 million tons of cargo were handled in the port of Liepaja, which is 10% less than in 2019. The port of Liepaja is the third largest port in Latvia in terms of the amount of cargo handled.
Liepāja SEZ is the territory of Liepāja city and Liepāja district, which was established with the aim to develop and promote trade, industry, shipping and air traffic, as well as international trade of goods through Latvia, and to attract investments for the development of production and infrastructure and creation of new jobs in Liepāja.
