Leading ports across Northern Europe are facing a tough end to the year and beginning of 2012, according to the latest Global Port Tracker report from Hackett Associates and the Bremen Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics.
The report forecasts full-year growth across ports including Antwerp, Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Le Havre, Rotterdam and Zeebrugge of 12.7 per cent for inbound traffic and 8.7 per cent for outbound traffic, IFW revealed.
However, the report predicted that a decline would set in as the year draws to a close, beginning in October.
'For 2012, we project this level of growth to be cut in half, with the weaker trade volumes becoming apparent this year,' noted the report's co-author Ben Hackett.
