October 9 (SeeNews) - The company operating the Slovenian port of Koper expects to raise its group operating profit and revenue by at least 10% this year, the company said on Tuesday.
"Operating revenue and profit will register at least 10% growth, mainly because of improved structure of handled cargo, 40% growth of container shipments and 20% growth of car shipments", Luka Koper said in a statement.
Luka Koper reported a group operating profit of 19.4 million euro ($27.2 million) and operating revenue of 105.7 million euro in 2007 .
The company has said it expects cargo throughput to total 15 million tonnes this year, up from 14.031 million tonnes reported for last year. According to preliminary estimates, Luka Koper handled 11.2 million tonnes of goods in the first nine months of 2007, which is equivalent to 80% of its cargo throughput for the whole of last year.
The port's container, car and general cargo terminals reported the sharpest rise in the volume of cargo handled through September. Container freight traffic was up 44% on the year, whereas vehicles throughput is more than 28% higher.
Shares in blue-chip Luka Koper lost 0.46% to an average price of 102.80 euro on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
($ = 0.71 euro)