PortEconomics co-director Theo Notteboom provides insight on the EU container port landscape in the first half of 2023:
- Most top 15 #container #ports in the #European #Union show a moderate to strong year-on-year decline in TEU throughput in H1 2023. For quite a few ports, these negative figures come on top of the traffic losses incurred in 2022. The economic slowdown is reflected in the handled container volumes.
- Only Piraeus and Gioia Tauro show a TEU growth. Ports of Genoa and Algeciras recorded a small drop. A traffic loss of 5.6% in the Genoa port area was largely compensated by an exceptional 39.5% growth in Vado Ligure which is managed by the same port system authority.
- French ports HAROPA and Marseille, and German port Bremerhaven were hit by a massive 15% decline in H1 2023. Also, Spanish ports Valencia and Barcelona, and Hamburg faced a double-digit drop in container throughput.
- The half-year growth figures (temporarily) make Piraeus the fourth largest EU port after Rotterdam, Antwerp-Bruges and Hamburg. Valencia is pushed back from the fourth to the sixth place.
- Most ports expect container volumes to recover somewhat in the second half of 2023.
