North Europe imports to decline

The continuing economic downturn is causing total box handling in the Hamburg-Le Havre range (Hamburg, Bremen, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Antwerp and Le Havre) to remain relatively flat, with 40.2 million teu for the full year, compared to 39.7 million teu in 2012, a rise of 1.2%.

Ben Hackett, principal, Hackett Associates, said: “The rising unemployment and lack of consumer spending is creating an economic recession with severe consequences for international trade.”

With Europe’s governments still reluctant to change their fiscal policies in times of economic decline, deep sea imports are expected to collapse in 2013 altogether, but some export growth is expected as North America and Asia maintain economic expansion.

According to the Port Tracker, the weak consumer demand is having a strong impact on carrier deep sea laden import volumes to Northern Europe. Mr Hackett explained: “In 2012, some 15 million international import teu were discharged in the North Range ports, but with three of the quarters being negative compared to the preceding quarter. In 2013, we anticipate that this number will decline by over 13%.”

Total teu handled at Hamburg is expected to rise by 1%, while Rotterdam and Antwerp are expected to outperform, growing at rates of 3%. The ports of Zeebrugge and Bremen in particular, are set to come in with declines. The total projected volumes for 2013 at Bremen are expected to decrease by 6.2% to 5.7 million teu.