EUROPE

Mixed reviews for North European ports

10 years ago

This year has started out to be a particularly bad one in terms of the negative affect that the downturn in GDP is having on North European Ports, according to Hackett Associates latest Global Port Tracker.

BUCKING THE TREND: Bremerhaven (pictured) and Zeebrugge were the sole ports to post an increase in January for both incoming and outgoing volumes

Preliminary figures indicate that total container volumes across the six port range decreased by 30,000 teu (or 0.9%) in February compared to January with 3.26 million teu, equating to a 1% year-on year decrease.

For incoming volumes, the North Range as a whole posted a 1.1% decrease from January and a 0.1% dip year-on-year. Outgoing volumes posted a 0.7% dip from January and a 2% slide year-on-year.

The doom and gloom doesn’t stop there because if Hackett Associate’s current estimate for the first quarter of 2016 is confirmed, port traffic in the range will have decreased by 1.9% compared with the first quarter of 2015.

So why is it that the firm is actually forecasting an increase of 0.1%? This is because, as Sönke Maatsch points out, when the figures are adjusted, container traffic declined throughout 2015, so the first quarter of 2016 will still be above average.

“Right now – and especially after the latest first quarter results – there is no reason to believe that container traffic volumes will go down in the same manner as in 2015. Simply maintaining the (seasonally adjusted) level reached in the first quarter would mean solid year-on-year growth compared with 2015.”

Now all that’s needed is a little more consumer spending in order to help those GDP figures to pick up.