Throughput at the Port of Rotterdam saw a small decrease of 0.2% in the first quarter of 2014, but was slightly positive in the second quarter, causing throughput in the first half of the year to increase by 0.6%.
A further recovery of the European economy is expected for the second half of the year, so that the port is on track in terms of achieving approximately 1% growth for all of 2014.
The throughput of crude oil increased by 3.3% while that of mineral oil products decreased by 13.5%.
The throughput of coal grew by 9.5%, while ore throughput stayed virtually the same.
Container throughput, measured in tonnes, increased by 2.7%, or 1.9% when measured in TEUs.
The throughput of short sea containers grew by 6.1% in tonnes and 2.6% in TEUs.
The growth primarily represents the transport between Rotterdam and the Baltic Sea states and Russia, and transport between Rotterdam and the United Kingdom and Ireland.
A key reason for this is the improving British economy. This is also the reason for the improvement in RoRo traffic by 8.4%.
There was an increase in the throughput of other general goods by 28.5% due to the increase in the demand for steel products and an increase in project cargo, particularly for the offshore industry.
The number of ocean-going vessels that visited the port in the first half of this year declined by 1.5% to 14,417. This is primarily due to the increase in scale of the container sector.
[mappress] Press Release, July 18th, 2014