Less agribulk throughput in Port of Rotterdam
The Port of Rotterdam, the biggest port in Europe, achieved good results in the first half of the year. However, the throughput of dry bulk (agricultural bulk, coal, ores) fell across the board.
In total, throughput of the category dry bulk fell by 4.9%. Specifically, agricultural bulk showed a significant decline (-18.4% to 4.75 million tonnes).
The decline is due to good grain and rapeseed harvests in Europe causing less to be imported as well as less soya being imported from South America. In the first half of 2014, agricultural bulk rose with 37.3% compared to the same period in 2013. In 2014, considerably more corn was imported from the Ukraine via Rotterdam, as well as soy from South America, among other products. At the same time, there was an increase in the export of wheat.
Total throughput of the Dutch port in the first half of this year increased by 6.8% compared to the first half of 2014. This growth was almost entirely accounted for by the throughput of oil products (+29.7%), crude oil (+8.3%), containers (+3.7% in TEU) and roll-on/roll-off-transport (+9.6%).
