The Global Port Tracker: North Europe Trade Outlook report suggests shipping volumes will not increase much in December – as they did last year – and then drop off sharply in 2012, according to IFW-net.com.
Authors Hackett Associates and the Bremen Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics project a 12.5 per cent increase to 8.89 TEU across 2011, but the eponymous Ben Hackett said: "We are becoming less and less optimistic about 2012."
Hackett warned: "We expect growth to drop off sharply, much as it has done in North America. We again caution that freight rates will remain under pressure unless a sizeable part of capacity is withdrawn from the market."
The Port of Hamburg, in particular, will struggle to match its strong performance of 2008, says the report, which covers northern Europe's six major container ports: Antwerp, Bremen/Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Le Havre, Rotterdam and Zeebrugge.
