Rotterdam Container Traffic Falls 10 Percent

The Port of Rotterdam's container traffic fell 10 percent in 2009 from a year ago, but Europe's biggest box hub boosted its share of the key Asia-Europe liner shipping trade.

Total cargo volume fell 8.5 percent to 385 million metric tons from a record 421 million metric tons in 2008, the first decline in seven years that was driven by a 29 percent slump in dry bulk shipments.

The Dutch port handled 9.8 million 20-foot equivalent units this year against a record 10.8 million TEUs in 2008, according to provisional figures published Dec. 30.

"Considering the circumstances, we cannot be dissatisfied," said Port of Rotterdam Authority CEO Hans Smits.

"After hitting rock bottom in the second quarter, throughput has been improving slightly every month and virtually all the investments are going ahead," Smits said. “Moreover, Rotterdam is going better than its main rivals."

Smits said the port hopes to break through the 400 million metric tons barrier in 2010 on growth "considerably over 3 percent.”

Rotterdam said it is benefiting from the trend among ocean carriers to combine services and deploy their biggest vessels to cut costs.

Container traffic to and from North and South America and within Europe has been hard hit by the global recession. But the Baltic trade, mainly feeder traffic linked to Asian services, "is really flourishing," the Port Authority said.

Roll-on, roll-off traffic, which is focused on the UK market, shrunk 10.6 percent to 16 million metric tons from 17.9 million metric tons in 2008. Conventional general cargo slumped 16.3 percent to just over 6 million metric tons with break bulk steel shipments down a third and auto traffic shrinking by 70 percent.

Paper products were slightly lower and project cargo was stable.

Dry bulk shipments fell 29.4 percent to 67 million metric tons from 95 million metric tons a year ago. Coal traffic was down 12 percent to 25 million metric tons and ore and scrap traffic almost halved to 23 million metric tons on sharply lower imports by Northwest European steel producers.

Liquid bulk traffic rose 1 percent to 196 million metric tons as a 22.6 percent surge in oil products -- the only growth sector -- to a record 71.8 million metric tons outweighed a 6 percent drop in crude oil shipments to 95 million metric tons.

Rotterdam has cut harbor dues for ships and inland river barges by 7 percent in 2010. The first reduction in tariffs in more than 20 years is aimed at protecting the port's top ranking in the Le Havre-Hamburg range.