Container throughput for the first nine months of 2021 has been increased in the majority of the 15 busiest European Union’s containers ports, with the Port of Le Havre marking the most significant growth of 49% year-on-year.
The French port recorded a strong rebound from 2020, when it had suffered double-digit volume losses of 14.4% compared to 2019, according to PortEconomics, which noted that the port’s volumes were mainly benefitted from congestion problems in other major North European hubs.
Following the port of Le Havre, Barcelona also showed a remarkable recovery in the first nine months of 2021 with its volume traffic recorded an increase of 20.5% over 2020.
Regarding the ports of Zeebrugge and Sines, they continued their volume growth during the first three quarters of 2021, by 25% and 22.5% year-on-year, respectively.
The Greek COSCO-owned Port of Piraeus and the Spanish Port of Algeciras were the only ports out of the 15 busiest of the EU to have reported negative results during the January-September 2021 period.
In particular, Pireaus marked a slight decline of 1%, while Algeciras volumes dropped by 6.1% over the first nine months of 2020.
With these figures, Piraeus is therefore at risk of losing the fourth position in the European box ports ranking from the Port of Valencia, which has seen a container throughput growth of 6.7% in the first nine months of 2021.
