Volumes rose to 19.4 million tonnes for the period against16.3 million tonnes a year earlier, according to Statistics Norway.

Narvik, by far the country's largest dry cargo port, saw a 5.8% reductionin volumes to 5.4 million tonnes while second ranked port Grenland saw a 2.8%rise to 1.6 million.

Liquid bulk volumes dipped by 3.5% to 21.6 million tonnes comparedto the fourth quarter of 2012.

Bergen