Fos Box Traffic on Growth Trend

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.