Growing exports of Lithuania’s transport services to EU to replace Russian market
The fall of exports of transport services to Russia is offset by providing more of these services to the European Union (EU) countries, says press center of Lithuania’s Ministry of Transport and Communications.
The results of the Lithuania's Review of the first half of the year, prepared by the Bank of Lithuania, show that the most rising exports markets are to Austria, Denmark and France.
“Reduced flow of goods between Russia and the EU led to a more active participation of Lithuanian transport and logistics companies in other markets, thusly, amortization of the impact of trade restrictions announced by Russia. While the exports of transport services to Russia have fallen by more than 40 percent in the first half of the year, the total volume of transport services’ export fell by only 1.78 percent”, said Rimantas Sinkevičius, Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania.
Compared with the results of the first half of the previous year, the total volume of exports of transport services to Russia decreased by 40.8 percent and Russia’s market share dropped by about one tenth (from 25.6 percent to 15.4 percent) during the first six months of the year. Nevertheless, the exports of transport services to Austria (36.9 percent), Denmark (35.6 percent), France (16.4 percent) and Latvia (16.3 percent) have increased significantly.
Similar trends have been observed also in the analysis of the changes in exports performance of road haulage services. During the first half of the year, exports of these services have fallen only slightly compared to the previous year – 1.9 percent. The exports of road transportation services to Russia fell by 57.5 per cent, with a rise to the markets in Spain (52.7 percent), France (35.4 percent), Germany (20.6 percent), Denmark (15.9 percent).
The exports of transport services during the first half of the year amounted to EUR 1759.8 million (reference period in 2014 amounted to EUR 1728.4 million) and accounted for 60.7 percent of Lithuania’s total exports of services. In the assessment of Lithuania’s export of transport services to the EU, the largest market is in Germany, with France and Denmark being in the second and third places respectively.
