Sector development

Growth in global container throughput cooled further in 2019. According to the most recent estimates by Drewry, global throughput climbed by 2.3 % last year. This is below expectations, as throughput of 3.0 % for 2019 was still being forecast midway through the year.

The weakening of throughput growth was observed in almost all shipping regions, albeit to different extents. In Europe, growth momentum from North-West Europe and the Western Mediterranean was unable to offset the weaker trend in Scandinavia and the Baltic, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. There was even a noticeable year-on-year slowdown in growth in the world’s highest-throughput region, Asia. In China, volume at container ports grew by just 1.2 %, which was partly a consequence of the trade dispute with the USA.

The trend among the major container ports of the North Range, as well as the largest ports of the Baltic Sea, was mixed. In the Port of Hamburg, throughput volume of 9.3 million TEU in the reporting period was up significantly on the previous year (8.7 million TEU). As a result, Hamburg continues to rank third among European container ports, despite the ongoing work to dredge the river Elbe. Europe’s largest container port, Rotterdam, handled 14.8 million TEU in 2019, 2.1 % more containers than in the previous year. Container throughput in Antwerp was up 6.9 % year-on-year to 11.9 million TEU. At the ports in Bremen, however, container throughput fell considerably, with 11.4 % less containers compared to 2018. The JadeWeserPort in Wilhelmshaven was also 2.5 % down on the previous year’s figure. Container throughput at the Polish and Russian Baltic Sea ports increased once again, although not as strongly as in the previous year.

According to the most recent estimates from September 2019, freight traffic across all modes in Germany will continue its upwards trend from the previous year. Transport volumes are expected to be up slightly by 0.9 % year-on-year, while the rise in traffic performance – transport volume multiplied by the distance travelled – is likely to increase by 1.2 %. Growth in road traffic will be weaker than in the previous year, at 1.1 %. Traffic performance is expected to grow much more slowly than in 2018, at 1.5 %. Due to a significant decline in the transport of metals and metal products, the volume of rail transport is expected to fall by 1.1 %. Traffic performance will also decline by 1.1 %. By contrast, intermodal traffic is expected to benefit from the robust performance in other classes of goods, with strong growth in volume and performance of 3.5 % and 3.1 %, respectively.