Despite hopes that Baltic transport markets would begin to
improve at the tail end of this year, Latvia’s international
trucking association has stated that improvement is only likely to
come after a low point in 2010’s first quarter.
Valdis Trezins, head of the Latvijas Auto association of
international road freight firms, said that the beginning of the
year – always a low point for cargo volumes – was likely to be
particularly grim in 2010.
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As a result, Trezins predicted a wave of Latvian trucking
bankruptcies in the spring, as firms fail to meet truck leasing
costs.
He noted that in 2009’s first half, leasing companies had
commonly granted credit holidays and payment restructuring options
to Latvian truckers, but that this had ceased to be the case by the
end of Q3.
Many firms, he said, had replaced nearly 80 percent of fleets
through sale and leaseback and other agreements during boom time,
and could no longer handle such large leased fleets.
September saw Latvian cargo export grow in response to Russian
customs authorities restricting access to trucks from neighbouring
Lithuania. However, now that bureaucratic pressure has been stepped
up at the Latvian/Russian border, things have flattened once
again.
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