Sector development

Following a weak performance in the first half of the year, global container throughput started to pick up again in the third quarter of 2022. According to the latest estimates of Drewry, however, throughput volume was slightly down again in the fourth quarter. The market research institute anticipates a slight decrease in throughput volume of 0.5 % for 2022 as a whole. As a result of the steep drop in demand, there was an easing of the congestion at ports that had been caused by supply chain disruption, unscheduled ship calls, longer container dwell times and bottlenecks in onshore transport chains.

According to Drewry estimates, the decrease in throughput activity at year-end was observed in almost all shipping regions, albeit to different extents. In Asia, the world’s highest-throughput region, experts anticipate slight growth of 0.2 % for 2022 as a whole, despite weaker momentum in the fourth quarter. According to the latest estimates, volume at China’s container ports – hampered by extensive pandemic-related lockdowns in major production and export centres – grew by 1.3 % in 2022.

The decrease in throughput volume was most noticeable in Europe. According to Drewry estimates, container volumes at European ports decreased by 2.8 % in 2022, with ports in Scandinavia and the Baltic region affected most with volume losses of 13.7 %.

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 in the reporting period was 5.1 % down on the previous year at 8.3 million TEU (previous year: 8.7 million TEU). Hamburg was thus able to maintain its third place in the ranking of European container ports. Europe's largest container port, Rotterdam, handled 14.5 million TEU in 2022, 5.5 % fewer containers than in the previous year. Container throughput in the merged port of Antwerp-Bruges fell last year by 5.2 % to 13.5 million TEU. Container throughput fell sharply at the Bremen ports, with a decrease of 8.9 %. By contrast, the JadeWeserPort in Wilhelmshaven reported a strong year-on-year increase in throughput of 7.0 % to 519 thousand TEU for the first three quarters of 2022.

The Polish port of Gdansk recorded a slight year-on-year decrease in handling volumes of 2.2 % to 2.1 million TEU. As a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting sanctions, container throughput at Russia's Baltic Sea ports collapsed by 54 %. In turn, this led to lower transshipment volumes in the Northern European ports.

The study for freight and passenger transport commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport was last published on the basis of data from October 2022, before the effects of the Russian war of aggression on Germany's macroeconomic development. The study shows a noticeable downward trend across all modes of freight traffic in Germany in 2022. Transport volumes are expected to decrease by 0.4 % year-on-year, while traffic performance – transport volume multiplied by the distance travelled – will almost stagnate with a decline of 0.1 %. This falling demand affects all modes of transport. Road transport volumes are likely to be down by 0.4 % year-on-year. Traffic performance is poised to decrease less dramatically with a year-on-year decline of just 0.2 %. Rail transport looks set to stagnate after a strong increase last year. Traffic performance will increase slightly by 0.4 %. A significant drop-off in growth is also expected for intermodal transport. Volumes will be 0.7 % up and performance 1.3 % up on the previous year.