Bulks boosts Marseilles Fos revival as box volumes lag

An increase in bulk cargoes helped nudge total volumes up 1% at the French port of Marseilles Fos in the first nine months of the year, to 72.9m tonnes. The overall improvement came as general cargo dropped 11% to 11.68m tonnes – largely due to industrial action from April to June over the French government’s port reform proposals. Container volumes finished 17% down for January-September on 6.25m tonnes and 619,842 TEU. Conventional trades fell 9% to around 2m tonnes, although ro-ro traffic was up 4% at 3.4m tonnes.
Oil volumes rose 4% to some 48m tonnes. Crude imports gained 4% to reach 34.3m tonnes and refined products logged a 6% increase on 9.3m tonnes. LNG lost 5% to 3m tonnes while LPG was stable on 1.4m tonnes.
Dry bulks increased by 1% for the period on 10.46m tonnes following a 63% increase for September driven by coal imports. Liquid bulks improved 11% to 2.78m tonnes, marked by a 67% rise in biofuels traffic to almost 0.7m tonnes.
Passenger volumes slipped 1% to 1.694m. Corsica and North Africa ferry carryings were down 6% overall at around 1.3m after a 21% slump on Algerian services, but the cruise sector was up 21% with 396,000 passengers. Passengers in transit – representing 80% of the cruise total – rose by 18% while ‘home port’ passengers increased by a third.