Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Nice to meet you again. My name is Marju Zirel. I'm Head of Investor Relations in Tallinn, Tallinna Sadam. With me is Mr. Valdo Kalm, who is our CEO, and we will be presenting Port of Tallinn Q3 and nine months results today. I will give the floor to Valdo, please.
Thank you, Marju. Here we go. First of all, I would like to present the main events from Q1. A couple of important events on cargo business. Our customer, Katoen Natie, made the extension in terminal Muuga. Then HHLA brought new cranes, container cranes to Muuga Harbour, which allows to take bigger container ships and serve them. It's great news, and hopefully we will see effect of these two projects in even nearest future. We opened our new cruise terminal, but it's already in operation this year. During the wintertime, we use terminal for events to cover the cost. It's new green building with very low cost. That means that we're heating and cooling the whole building with water cooling heating system.
We then got some award to cruise terminal. We opened the Admiral Bridge to connect D terminal area with A terminal area that gives possibility to better serve customers, but also it's really good for the all area in Old City Harbour. We had, unfortunately, incident with ferry Tõll in July, and Tõll is hybrid vessel. Of course, sometimes if you launching new technology, then there is a risk for certain incidents. We know the reason, and Tõll is back on operation quite quickly, thanks to good reaction from the local shipyard. Therefore, now we learning from this incident, we will move further. Definitely the electrification is a right direction of ferries. We already see effects on cost side.
That means some 20%-25% lower cost on hybrid system, therefore effect is there. Then we had Investor Day in our new cruise terminal. About the trends in main business areas, in Q3, there still we see the decline in passenger numbers, 16%, and in revenues, 4%. Although we managed to open cruise again as a model, and we got almost 40 cruise ships to Tallinn, what is we consider as a good opening because we did better than other cruise ports in Baltic Sea. Then also Stockholm line reopened in Q3. On cargo, we had very strong quarter with some strong growth in volumes, 23%, coming mainly from liquid bulk, but also from Ro-Ro. Ferry business and other segment, that means mainly Botnica, shows stable revenues and stable profitability.
As we all know, COVID still plays important role in our life, our business life. Although we opened the cruise and the Stockholm line, there is the decrease from Helsinki. What is positive that this Ro-Ro keeps RoPax vessels moving. On cargo side, continuous growth. Even we see positive impact from COVID. Some new customers find our route or corridor. On ferry and other, we don't see any significant impact. We continue with investments. Of course, we motivating our employees to vaccinate. Our vaccination level in Port of Tallinn group is 87%. That means that we achieved quite a good level already.
Very briefly, our passenger volumes, I already described, that and on nine months it's still decline, comes mainly from Helsinki-Tallinn route. Hopefully next year will be better. We just now working with the prognosis for the next year. Definitely we hope to the recovery. The question mark, how long it takes now? That's under the consideration. On cargo side, I mentioned that Q3 was very strong month supported by growth on liquid bulk and Ro-Ro, but on nine months we see the growth in all our cargo areas. That's really good that all the areas are growing. Shipping volumes are there, and the Botnica charter days are very stable. Botnica are doing well, now returning from Canada, and hopefully will finalize quite a good season again.
To the financials. Marju, please take over.
Oh, thank you Valdo. For the financial results, as you can see there are no big surprises there considering what is going on in the world at the moment. Our revenue is still under pressure of this pandemic influence and this comes mainly from the first quarter of 2020 because the restrictions on passenger movement started in March 2020. We are happy to see that our nine months revenue is almost reached the level of 2020, which is of course not as normal as 2019 was but still the second and third quarter improved the results. As for adjusted EBITDA and operating profit, these have still declined both in Q3 and nine months and this comes from the several things.
First thing, we are under pressure of operating costs rise because the services and personnel costs and energy especially in Q3 the prices are rising. Also there is a lower cost base in 2020, especially in nine months, because we have had repair cost in 2020 which were pushed forward. Also we have had some several cuts in personnel cost bonuses system which we didn't have in 2021. Of course, in 2020 we had one time influence from sales of assets in Paljassaare and Muuga which was about EUR 2 million. This explains the decrease quite well, I think. As for the income tax decrease, this comes from the lower dividend payment in 2021.
We are happy to say that due to our several business fields and diversification, we are still in strong profit both in Q3 and nine months. As the investments in this year have decreased as well, and this is not that we have cut anything, we have just completed things we have planned. This leads us to strong position to pay out dividends this year as well. As for the segments, passenger harbor is still most influenced from the pandemic restrictions both in Q3 and nine months as well. In 2021, as Valdo said, we had cruise calls and passengers which we didn't have in 2020. This also means that we have higher costs for cruise ships calls for ship waste management and mooring.
This also explains the slight decline in adjusted EBITDA in passenger segments. In cargo harbor segments, for the nine months, as I explained we had the influence in adjusted EBITDA of the one-time sale of assets which leads to lower EBITDA number. We also had the growth in Ro-Ro which means that there are no additional ship calls, but there is more load on the ships calling us. This means that the revenue is not and profit is not rising at the same level as the volumes. As Valdo said, we had the most rise in volumes coming from the liquid bulk.
For liquid bulk, this is very competitive area and we have to make some discounts to keep the volumes and therefore the profitability is in decline. For the ferry segment, the revenue has increased in Q3, and this is due to indexation and also the rental fee. The adjusted EBITDA has declined a bit, and this is due to the rise in fuel prices and overall inflation, but also this Tõll incident. Of course, we have had some main influence coming from main engines repairs, which were planned costs for this year, and they continue also in the fourth quarter.
For the other segment, this is very stable and, as the Botnica has lower costs, the adjusted EBITDA has improved and, the EBITDA is also improved because, the Green Marine, our joint venture is more profitable and doing better and, this is due to higher fuel prices. As for the cash flow statement, our net cash flow position has improved by EUR 60 million and, this comes from. I'm sorry, there's a mistake here. It should be, cash from operating activities, EUR 3.8 million here. And, this increase comes mainly because in 2020 we paid out, the coal terminal deposit, which we held during the dispute, which we didn't have in 2021.
We had less cash used in investing activities as the investment costs were lower and therefore the free cash flow has improved by EUR 70 million. As the net debt is also in decline and the net cash flow is in better position, I would again say that we are very able to pay out dividends for this year results. Here you can see just for information how the revenue by segments and quarters is generated and also the EBITDA. This is just for information. Now please take a chance to ask questions from Valdo and me. You can use the question box on your right-hand side to type them in. We will take a short break, a few minutes to. For you to type them in and, for us to prepare the answers. See you soon.
Okay, to the questions. First question, in cargo segment, you are facing strong growing cost pressure. Is it temporary or rather long-term trend? And if second scenario, how do you plan to transfer it to the customers' tariffs? If we're talking about the cargo segment costs, then we don't see very heavy pressure. There are some costs that we really carry on mooring, but we see biggest growth on energy, and that we transfer to the customers. Therefore, the biggest part of the costs that is energy, we can transfer to our operators.
I'll take the next question, which is how much did the Tõll incident cost to the company? Actually, some of the bills we have not received yet, so it's still not very clear. We have had so far about EUR 200,000 of repair costs due to this incident. Plus, we have had some additional personnel costs because we had to do some additional trips on Regula and switch persons. And also, there is a cost from fuel because we had to switch Tõll to use diesel, not run as a hybrid ship on electricity. There's some influence there, but it's not yet fair to say how much it costs.
Most of the costs will be hopefully returned to us from the insurance company because the vessel was insured. The next question is, are you hedging fuel prices? If the main fuel influence comes from the ferries, and we are not especially hedging fuel prices, but it is hedged by the contracts that we have with the Transport Administration because for fuel costs, this quarter we get it compensated and indexed on the next quarter. So it's hedged by the contract.
Yeah. There is a question, how often the changes in fuel prices can be adjusted in the service contract then.
Yeah, it's quarterly basis.
Basically quarterly. It's quarterly basis as Marju said.
Mm-hmm.
What is the status of real estate development project? When can investors expect news? Right. On real estate, we plan to have a couple of bigger steps and hopefully by the end of this year, beginning next year, we will introduce that of course together with city government, the detailed planning sketches or first draft of our areas. We are talking about the four areas. That means all the areas will be published in a first phase. After that, of course, detailed planning moves on. It takes hopefully next year. After that, I guess we will be ready to invite investors to the tenders for development.
Because if you remember, then we are not going to be developers. We will announce the tenders for developers.
Mm-hmm.
Yes, please.
Yeah, I can take that.
Okay.
Please explain again why the personnel costs increased rapidly 17% year-on-year. I think this is meant nine months and no, it's third quarter. The explanation is because we had to use extra workforce due to the Tõll incident, and there's an increase, and of course, as I said, the cost base for 2020 was lower overall because we then had some cuts on the bonus system, which we didn't have in 2021, so.
We decreased the personnel cost last year, therefore we had lower bases.
Yes. Yes.
There are, yeah, many elements.
Mm-hmm.
Just a moment. As the statistics featured on our website seem to work properly, please indicate the number of RoPax vessels operated from cargo harbors during Q3. If we talk about cargo volumes, then we had-
First quarter.
Yes, it's first. Volume was 13% up. If we talk about vessels, then we had little bit decrease because of one Tallink's vessel was in a dock in Q3.
Mm-hmm.
That means, RoPax vessels' calls were some maybe 15% lower.
Mm-hmm.
I don't have exact figure, but due to the one dock.
Yeah
... of Sea Wind, there is lower calls.
Please, send me an email so I can answer you by email this question.
Right.
Well, I think that we have answered all your questions. If you should have any more questions, please feel free to write us, or if you want some follow-up meetings, we are available for you. Thank you, and meet you next quarter.
Thank you for attention.