Port of Ghent’s cargo traffic in third quarter of 2013

For the third quarter of 2013, Ghent port registered a total cargo traffic of 12mt (million tonnes), which is 6% less than for the third quarter of 2012.This brings the cargo traffic after nine months to 36mt: a decrease by 4.5%.

THIRD QUARTER

The 12mt in the third quarter comprise both seagoing and inland navigation traffic. Seaborne cargo traffic amounted to 6.6mt or 3.7 % less than in the third quarter of 2012. Inland navigation traffic has fallen to 5.4mt, or 8.5% less.

With the 12mt of cargo traffic, the third quarter of 2013 finds itself right in-between the results of the first quarter (11.6mt) and of the second quarter (12.4mt).

KINDS OF GOODS

In the third quarter, the cargo traffics for fertilizers, metallurgical products, foodstuffs and solid mineral fuels by seagoing navigation recorded a growth. For chemical products, a steep drop is registered.

The share of imports (75%) and exports (25%) in the seaborne cargo traffic remains similar.

For the inland navigation traffic, agricultural products experienced a strong decrease, just like the solid mineral fuels and petroleum products. Foodstuffs, metallurgical products, crude minerals and building materials were on the up.

JANUARY–SEPTEMBER: SEABORNE CARGO TRAFFIC ON THE RISE

In the first three quarters of 2013, the Port of Ghent had a total cargo traffic of 36mt.This is 1.7mt or 4.5% less than in the same period of the previous year.

For these first nine months, 19.1mt of seaborne cargo traffic was recorded. This is a decrease by 4.7% compared with 2012 but, since the beginning of 2013, seaborne cargo traffic has been increasing for three quarters in a row.

With a 10% rise, it seems that seaborne cargo traffic is recovering. Inland navigation traffic registered a total of 16.9mt: a decrease by 4.3%.

For the first nine months, an increase of the roll-on/roll-off traffic by seagoing navigation can be observed (+13%). The tonnages in containers by seagoing navigation equally grew (+18.5%). Container traffic by inland navigation in this period has doubled to 240,000 tonnes, in a smaller number of containers.