Boxes Gain Share in Europe, as Volume Falls

Europe's top ports boosted the share of containers in general cargo traffic to an all time high last year even as box volumes slowed significantly in the final quarter.

Of the 509 million tonnes of general cargo handled in the Le Havre-Hamburg port range in 2008, 81 percent, or 410 million tonnes, was "boxed" compared with 79 percent in the previous year, according to figures from the port of Rotterdam.

Of the four largest ports, Hamburg boasts the highest degree of containerization, with 97 percent of general cargo moving in boxes, unchanged from 2007.

Bremen/Bremerhaven ranked second at 85 percent against 84 percent in 2007. Antwerp increased its container share by three percent to 83 percent, while Rotterdam rose to 81 percent from 79 percent.

While containerization of general and break bulk and dry bulk cargoes is still growing, the volume of box traffic is declining across the Le Havre-Hamburg range amid the global economic downturn.

Hamburg, Europe's second largest box port, reported first quarter container throughput tumbled 24 percent from a year ago to 1.86 million TEUs, while Rotterdam, the top container hub, was down 16 percent at 2.3 million TEUs and third ranked Antwerp slipped 16.3 percent to 1.74 million TEUs.

Rotterdam said container traffic in 2009 likely will fall by between 13 percent and 15 percent from the record 10.8 million handled in 2008. Antwerp has forecast box volume will be down by as much as 20 percent from 8.6 million TEUs in 2008.

The other Le Havre-Hamburg range ports are: Dunkirk, Gent, Amsterdam, Wilhelmshaven and Zeebrugge.

Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.