News / Rotterdam and Antwerp terminals still seeing reduced container volumes

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The ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp-Bruges are reporting drastically reduced container volumes this year so far, having suffered a nine-month teu drop of 7.2% and 6.8%, respectively, compared with last year.

Ports in Northern Europe remain short of cargo, following the withdrawal of Russian container volumes, which has caused a pronounced deficit. In Rotterdam’s H1 results, it reported volumes down 8.1%, compared with H1 22, while Antwerp-Bruges saw a 5.5% decline.

Although the latest news shows that downward trends have not abated, it also implies some marginal improvement at Rotterdam between the half-year 8.1% drop and the nine-month 7.2% reported today. Indeed, The Loadstar yesterday reported on possible ‘green shoots’ of recovery.

Rotterdam also blamed inflation and “limited economic growth” for the drop, as well as a consumer spending shift from products to services in the post-pandemic era. Nine-month ro-ro cargo at Rotterdam fell 3.8%; but the most pronounced drop was in general cargo, which fell 13.7%.

Antwerp-Bruges CEO Jacques Vandermeiren said: “The continued economic and geopolitical concerns have been visible in the figures for several quarters now. The competitiveness of European industry is under pressure due to high energy, raw materials and labour costs combined with low global demand.

“The indicators do not yet show any improvement for the near future, and container throughput will still be impacted in the fourth quarter by cancelled voyages from the Far East.”

However, Antwerp-Bruges claimed its market share within the Hamburg-Le Havre cluster had increased, and Mr Vandermieren tempered his pessimism by adding: “Despite the fact that our throughput is falling less than the average in the Hamburg-Le Havre range and we are gaining market share, we will have to face the fact that 2023 will not be a top year.”

All eyes will now turn to Hamburg, which suffered a dismal drop of 14.6% in container volumes in the first half of 2023.

Meanwhile, it seems Russian ports are having a field day with embargoed container volumes. Global Ports – which operates terminals in Russia and Finland – released its results for the first nine months of 2023, which show 13.4% increased throughput year on year, to 1.19m teu.

The group said this was driven largely by increased cargo volumes at its Baltic terminals, where it claims third-quarter volumes increased 450% on Q3 22  and 41% from the second to third quarters this year.