A bounce after the downturn?

First quarter container traffic at Fos deepsea terminal, handling the key east-west trades, fell 16% on last year to 157,039 teu but was just 1% down for March on 63,627 teu – helped by three new weekly services launched by Maersk-CMA CGM, MSC and Turkon.

Total box throughput for the quarter was 21% down on 206,807 teu after a 33% slump in trans-Mediterranean traffic handled in the Marseilles harbour area, but the overall March deficit narrowed to 13% on 78,825 teu.