Reduced Steel Industry Activity News

Container throughput at the Port of Marseilles totaled 826,000 teu to the end of October - a 3.7 rise on the first ten months last year - marked by a 6.8% increase to 586,000 teu on east-west volumes through Fos. Box tonnage of 8.37 million tons (+6.9%) helped general cargo to a 5.1% improvement on 14.48MT, which also included a 6% rise in RoRo traffic to 3.65MT. Liquid bulks maintained the upward trend, finishing the period 6.6% better on 2.83MT, but total port traffic slipped 3.5% to 80.24MT due to continuing lower demand in the high volume oil and dry bulk sectors. Warm weather saw oil throughput 2% worse at 51.93MT despite a three-point rally in crude imports to 37MT. Against 4% growth in LNG to 3.41MT, refined products and LPG were down 15% on 11.5MT.

Marseilles-Fos container throughput of 397,000 teu from January to May marked a 3 percent increase on the first five months last year. The total included an 8 percent rise to 284,000 teu on east-west trades via Fos. Container tonnage of four million tonnes was up 4 percent for the period and helped general cargo to a similar percentage rise on 7.1MT. A 10% boost in RoRo traffic added 1.8MT to the total. The port’s overall January-May cargo total of 39.7MT was 2.5% down on last year. Oil traffic continued to rally after a slow start to the year, ending the period 1.1 percent down on 25.3MT, but dry bulks suffered from reduced steel industry activity to finish 16.1% worse on 5.9MT. Liquid bulks remained buoyant with 10 percent growth to 1.4MT.