Port statistics show 11.9% decline

The 2009 statistics on European port cargo volumes as collected through the ESPO Rapid Data Exchange System (RES) are now available from the ESPO website.
The overall picture for 2009 is, as expected, negative. The total cargo volume of the ports participating in RES has declined with 11.9% compared to 2008.

Particularly the solid bulk market segment was hit hard with a decrease of 24.1%. General cargo went down overall with 13.2%, containerised general cargo showing a minus of 12% and non-containerised roro traffic a minus of 16%. Container traffic in TEU went down with 14.5%. The liquid bulk segment withstood the crisis best, showing only 3.4% decrease compared to 2008.

RES is a voluntary system of data exchange between ports which has been working already for more than 14 years between participating ports. The system is kindly coordinated by the “Ministère de l’Écologie, de l’Énergie, du Développement durable et de la Mer” of the French Government. Data collection is performed quarterly in electronic format. Statistics are then produced quarterly and are readily available from the ESPO website about 10 weeks after the end of each quarter. A special edition containing an in-depth analysis of the data will be provided once a year.

Today, around 50 ports already participate in RES. The intention is to extend this sample substantially, so that the representativeness of the data becomes stronger. European ports that wish to sign up to RES are therefore warmly encouraged to contact Martina Fontanet at the ESPO Secretariat or Pierre Forges at the French Ministry.

(Source: Transport Weekly)