Port of Le Havre declines 8.5% in 2009

The world economic crisis left its mark on the Port of Le Havre during 2009, where the provisional 74m tonnes traffic figures, including bunkering and ship stores, show a decrease of 8.5% against 2008.

Container trade dropped by 11% to 22.1m tonnes against 24.9m tonnes in the previous year, which, in terms of the number of units handled corresponds to 2.2m teu, a fall of 10% fall. According to the Port, this figure illustrates ‘good resistance’ when compared to the results of the other main ports of the North-European range.

During the period, Port 2000 reached 80% capacity, handling around 1.1m teu through its four operational berths. An addition six berths will be handed over to operators during the course of 2010.

Container transhipment remained relatively stable, whilst freight traffic on the River Seine increased by around 10%, with the ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris agreeing to pool their marketing in 2010 to strengthen this growth.

Ro-Ro trade suffered from the world crisis in the car industry with a drop by about 25%, however the Korean motor manufacturer Kia will call at Le Havre from this year. Liquid bulks recorded a 7% drop at 45.6m tonnes handled, with dry bulks accounting for 3.9m tonnes against 4.7m tonnes in 2008.

(Source: Container Management)