Box traffic at Port of Montreal hits record high in 2008

THE Port of Montreal is expected to have handled a record 1,460,500 TEU in 2008, an increase of 7.2 per cent over 2007, according to preliminary results.

Port Authority of Montreal chief Patrice Pelletier described the anticipated container throughput in a statement as an exceptional result achieved despite the economic slowdown that affected us during the last two months of 2008.

The port also expects total traffic to have risen by 2.5 per cent to 26.6 million tons in 2008.

The Mediterranean trade grew in 2008 by 31.6 per cent, and the Caribbean nearly as strongly, by 26.9 per cent, Mr Pelletier said.

With regard to 2009, Mr Pelletier projects that the port's container volume will be down 3.7 per cent on 2008 results. He is also forecasting that bulk traffic will decrease 19 per cent this year and liquid bulk by 7.4 per cent.

Seventy per cent of Montreal's traffic is with northern Europe, 20 per cent with the Mediterranean, and the balance with the Caribbean, reported Newark's Journal of Commerce.

Source:Schednet