The Port of Rotterdam saw 94m tonnes of throughout during the first quarter of 2009, a year-on-year drop of 10.8 per cent on last year as most types of goods saw a decline.
According to the Port of Rotterdam Authority, agribulk throughput dropped 4 per cent to 2.3m tonnes through the quarter, but this was actually one of the least-affected categories with significant falls in containers (down 18 per cent) iron ore and scrap (down 50 per cent) and other dry bulk (down 29 per cent).
The drop in agribulk was attributed to the good European harvest in 2008/09, with the new 2009/10 'decisive' from the third quarter of the year onwards. The handling of fruit has proved to be less sensitive to economic trends, the Authority said, but is subject to structural pressure due to continued containerisation.
'The decline in throughout is considerable, but is in line with the picture I outlined in December of a poor first six months,' said Hans Smit, CEO of the Port of Rotterdam Authority. 'Despite some rays of hope, the problems – for example in container shipping – continue to dominate for the time being. The recovery will therefore begin a little later than originally anticipated.
'We foresee a decline in throughput over the year as a whole of between -6 per cent and -10 per cent,' he added.
