18 April 2024 (Lloyd's List) - DELAYS to voyages forced to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope took a toll on container throughput at Rotterdam in the first two months of this year, but volumes still recorded a slight uptick in the first quarter as a whole.
“The situation in the Red Sea resulted in significantly fewer ships (-24.5%) and less volume from Asia (-13.7%) in January and February because of delays and missed sailings,” the port said in statement on its first-quarter figures.
“Fitting in the changed sailing schedules initially led to necessary adjustments in the logistics chain.”
Despite this adjustment throughput still rose by 2% to 3.3m teu, but this was a far smaller uplift over last year’s figures than that seen at Belgian rival Antwerp-Bruges, which saw 6% growth year on year.
“From the growth in container throughput, we see the first signs that world trade is picking up,” said Port of Rotterdam Authority chief executive Boudewijn Siemons.
“However, these tentative signs remain highly uncertain due to rising global tensions.”
Overall demand for container freight was “virtually unaffected”, with the Red Sea situation now under control.
March saw the number of ships arriving increase by more than 10% and volumes from Asia recovered. Volumes in the other shipping areas also showed a positive result.
“Cautious economic recovery and destocking are contributing to this,” the port said.
“Feeder traffic from Rotterdam to Mediterranean seaports also shows a strong increase (29%). As ships divert via the Cape of Good Hope and ports are bypassed, cargo destined for this region is shipped from Rotterdam to Mediterranean ports via feeder ships.”
Throughput in other segments reflected a weak eurozone economy, however.
Dry bulk volumes were down 4.5% due to lower demand for thermal coal for coal-fired power-plants, although increased German car production saw iron ore imports rise.
Other dry bulk sectors related to raw materials used in energy-intensive sectors fell 16.8%.
“Production in these sectors is still low, as energy costs account for a large part of production costs,” the port said.
Demand for oil products was lower than in the corresponding quarter of 2023 when additional imports were needed to replace Russian oil products, and as a result liquid bulk throughput also saw a 3.1% fall.
“The throughput figures show limited imports of raw materials and exports of finished products,” Siemons said.
“This tells us that European industrial production is still suffering from high energy prices and low demand from the biggest declining sectors such as construction and the processing and automotive industries.”
