Eurogate suffers 12.3pc decline in box volumes in 2009

CONTAINER terminal and logistics group, Eurogate, which together with Contship Italia operates 10 container terminals from the North Sea coast to the Mediterranean area, handled a total of 12,454,006 TEU in 2009, a decrease of 12.3 per cent compared to the previous year when a record 14,195,172 TEU was handled.

"The economic crisis has left its mark. Nevertheless, we will post a positive result for 2009. However, it will be some years before we can again reach the record level of 2008," said Eurogate Group chairman Thomas Eckelmann.

Eurogate's box terminals in Germany posted the sharpest declines, with throughput down 18.5 per cent year on year at 6,673,945 TEU, while in Italy the drop was less sharp at 9.9 per cent, handling 5,139,891 TEU.

At Eurogate's three Bremerhaven terminals traffic fell by 17.5 per cent compared to 2008 to 4,535,842 TEU, while Hamburg's box volume was down 20.5 per cent at 2,138,103 TEU.

In Italy, Eurogate's 33.4 per cent-owned Contship Italia unit suffered a 9.9 per cent decrease in container throughput at 5,139,891 TEU, down from 5,704,404 TEU in 2008, which the group attributed to the "positive development in container handling shown by Cagliari International Container Terminal in Sardinia.

Its terminal in Lisbon saw container volumes drop 13.1 per cent to 204,595, while throughput volumes soared 578.7 per cent at its Tangier terminal compared to 2008 to 435,575 TEU.

"As a pan-European terminal network, we need to remain competitive. I therefore urge the political parties to forge ahead with the necessary infrastructure measures to assure this, such as the deepening of the Elbe and Weser rivers, and to implement these as soon as possible," said Mr Eckelmann.

"Unless our terminals are unrestrictedly accessible around the clock, our shipping lines will be forced - however high our handling quality - to dock their giant containerships at other ports."

Eurogate is currently constructing a new deepwater container terminal in Wilhelmshaven, northern Germany that will be able to handle three million TEU annually.
 

Source: SchedNet