The Port of Rotterdam Authority has announced that goods throughput at the port increased over the first nine months of 2010, up 13.4 per cent to 321m tonnes.
According to the Port Authority, virtually all categories showed signs of year-on-year improvement, including containers (up 15 per cent) and other general cargo including fruit (up 14 per cent).
'The growth is levelling off, but is still slightly higher than expected,' said Hans Smit, chief executive of the Port of Rotterdam Authority. 'The port continues to profit from strong European exports, for which a lot of raw materials also need to be imported.
'Total throughput is now exactly at the 2008 level,' he added. 'As mentioned earlier, it is exciting to see whether or not we will succeed in climbing out of a deep trough to achieve a record in just one year.'
