Rhineland-Palatinate inland ports traffic rises 3.1%

In the first quarter of 2012, the 23 inland ports of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rhine and Moselle) handled almost 5.5 million tonnes of cargo. This is 3.1%, or 161,000 tonnes more than the first three months of 2011. In that period, shipping on the Rhine was obstructed for a while, and low water levels also affected throughput, by 11.6%. Almost 3.2 million tonnes, 5.4% more, was unloaded and the loaded quantity remained the same.

Types of cargo
Chemical products were the largest type of cargo at 1.4 million tonnes, followed by coke and mineral oil products with 1.2 million tonnes. Throughput of ores, stone, soil and other minerals clearly dropped to 1 million tonnes.

Ports
Ludwigshafen is the largest inland port of the state with a third of the total, and recorded an increase of 4% in throughput. At second position, Mainz-Weisenau grew by 5.8%, while in Andernach the throughput dropped by 9.2%.

Source: http://www.portofrotterdam.com/