Reuters reported that the head of Rotterdam Port, the biggest in Europe and a barometer of the region's trade and economic health, said that he saw no prospect of growth in cargo volumes until 2013 because of the euro zone debt crisis.
Rotterdam Port is a major transit point for commodities including oil and grains and for manufactured goods, as well as the biggest port for iron ore used by the German blast furnaces in the Ruhr region, which supply the German auto industry.
The port eked out a 0.8% rise in cargo volumes for 2011 to 433 million tonnes, a new record, although growth was below the forecast 2% to 3% that the port had set earlier in the year.
Mr Hans Smits CEO of Rotterdam Port said in a statement that "Throughput in the port is strongly connected to developments in relevant world trade and German industrial production. We expect to maintain the current level next year. In the second half of the year, I expect that we will have put the European confidence crisis behind us."
He said that the port would continue to invest in expansion, including new container and tank terminals, because it expected reasonable growth from 2013.
Throughput of crude oil fell 8% in 2011 to a low of 92 million tonnes, reflecting high prices and low refinery margins, which encouraged refiners to undertake major repairs. Throughput of oil products dropped 6%.
Throughput of iron ore and scrap fell 6% in 2011 following the closure of some blast furnaces in Germany, France and Belgium and is expected to decline even further in 2012.
The port said that coal throughput rose 12% following Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power plants and the amount expected to remain stable in 2012. Throughput of grain, oil seeds and derivatives jumped 18% as a disappointing European crop and Russian export ban in the first six months of the year led to more imports by sea. Container handling rose by 10% in 2011 on increased trade with Asia.
Rotterdam port is undergoing a EUR 3 billion land reclamation project, Maasvlakte 2, to expand its area by 20% to 12,000 hectares from 10,000 hectares currently. The first ship will dock at Maasvlakte 2 next year, and full capacity will be reached by 2033.
(Sourced from www.reuters.com)
