Container traffic through France’s Port of Marseilles Fos rose by 4 percent during 2009, bucking the port’s overall 13.3 percent decline in tonnage volume, the port authority said Monday.
Container throughput increased to 882,580 20-foot containers for all of 2009, compared to the previous year.
The growth in container volume was restricted to the deep-sea terminal at Fos, which specializes in the East-West trades. Throughput at Fos rose by 22 percent to 693,712 TEUs – close to the record 716,000 TEUs of 2007.
Growth of 30 percent in Far East volumes led the performance, which included a 40 percent rise in China trades.
Several other factors helped the improvement at Fos. In 2008 its traffic was hit by anti-reform strikes and the first effects of the economic crisis, while last year it gained business from the Mourepiane terminal in Marseilles -- which handles mainly intra- Mediterranean trades -- when shipowners switched to avoid reform-based strikes during the first half.
With the new Algerian customs restraints following in July, Mourepiane throughput slumped by a third to 188,868 TEUs.
The port authority said it made significant progress on the French government’s requirements for port reform during 2009, notably with preparations for the transfer of container and dry bulk cargo handling to private operators.
The port’s roll-on, roll-off traffic dropped by 7 percent to 4.04 million metric tons during the year, as it was particularly affected by Algerian controls on the import of public works equipment.
Conventional volume plunged 25 percent to 1.78 million metric tons, largely due to a fall in steel coil exports after Fos-based steel maker ArcelorMittal shut down one of its two foundries until October in response to the economic climate.
Despite the slowdown in world trade, eight new direct shipping services – four each from Marseilles and Fos -- were launched in 2009 compared with five in 2007 and only three in 2008.
Fos added a container service by Mediterranean Shipping Co., container and multi-purpose operations by Nordana Lines to the eastern Mediterranean as well as MSC’s container service to Algeria and one to Morocco from new customer Emes-Arkas.
Marseilles gained a CMA CGM container service to Morocco and a Nolis conro operation to Algeria together with two ro-ro services – Grimaldi to the eastern Mediterranean and Delmas to West Africa.
Another new ro-ro service was launched in January 2010, with Egyptian National Company initially offering a sailing every three weeks to Libya.
China retained top rank among the port’s trading partners and Algeria stayed in second place despite a 9 percent fall in volume.
The United States climbed one place to third after 30 percent growth, with Singapore fourth and Turkey slipping from third to fifth spot after a 5 percent dip in traffic. Spain dropped out of the top five, while India entered the top ten in eighth place with a trade increase of some 60 percent.
Container throughput increased to 882,580 20-foot containers for all of 2009, compared to the previous year.
The growth in container volume was restricted to the deep-sea terminal at Fos, which specializes in the East-West trades. Throughput at Fos rose by 22 percent to 693,712 TEUs – close to the record 716,000 TEUs of 2007.
Growth of 30 percent in Far East volumes led the performance, which included a 40 percent rise in China trades.
Several other factors helped the improvement at Fos. In 2008 its traffic was hit by anti-reform strikes and the first effects of the economic crisis, while last year it gained business from the Mourepiane terminal in Marseilles -- which handles mainly intra- Mediterranean trades -- when shipowners switched to avoid reform-based strikes during the first half.
With the new Algerian customs restraints following in July, Mourepiane throughput slumped by a third to 188,868 TEUs.
The port authority said it made significant progress on the French government’s requirements for port reform during 2009, notably with preparations for the transfer of container and dry bulk cargo handling to private operators.
The port’s roll-on, roll-off traffic dropped by 7 percent to 4.04 million metric tons during the year, as it was particularly affected by Algerian controls on the import of public works equipment.
Conventional volume plunged 25 percent to 1.78 million metric tons, largely due to a fall in steel coil exports after Fos-based steel maker ArcelorMittal shut down one of its two foundries until October in response to the economic climate.
Despite the slowdown in world trade, eight new direct shipping services – four each from Marseilles and Fos -- were launched in 2009 compared with five in 2007 and only three in 2008.
Fos added a container service by Mediterranean Shipping Co., container and multi-purpose operations by Nordana Lines to the eastern Mediterranean as well as MSC’s container service to Algeria and one to Morocco from new customer Emes-Arkas.
Marseilles gained a CMA CGM container service to Morocco and a Nolis conro operation to Algeria together with two ro-ro services – Grimaldi to the eastern Mediterranean and Delmas to West Africa.
Another new ro-ro service was launched in January 2010, with Egyptian National Company initially offering a sailing every three weeks to Libya.
China retained top rank among the port’s trading partners and Algeria stayed in second place despite a 9 percent fall in volume.
The United States climbed one place to third after 30 percent growth, with Singapore fourth and Turkey slipping from third to fifth spot after a 5 percent dip in traffic. Spain dropped out of the top five, while India entered the top ten in eighth place with a trade increase of some 60 percent.