Port of Rotterdam announces 1Q22 freight throughput

Allard Castelein, CEO Port of Rotterdam Authority, said: “Although we started the year exceptionally well, the world was hit by the war in Ukraine in late February. Besides the fact that this conflict is a terrible humanitarian disaster, it led to serious uncertainty in world trade and changes in logistical parameters. Although no one can predict how this will unfold, we expect that the developments in Ukraine and the seriously deteriorated relationship between Russia and many other countries will impact throughput volumes for the rest of the year as well.”

In the port of Rotterdam last year, 62 million t of almost 470 million t of throughput was Russia-oriented (13%). Many energy carriers from Russia are imported via the port of Rotterdam. In 2021, roughly 30% of crude oil, 25% of LNG, and 20% of oil products and coal came from Russia. Russia also exports steel, copper, aluminium and nickel through Rotterdam. In 2021, 8% of container handling was Russia-oriented. As the war in Ukraine only began in late February, the impact on throughput volumes in the first quarter was still limited. Meanwhile, the impact of the sanctions and of the decisions of individual companies not to do any business with Russia any longer, has become noticeable in almost all sectors.

Dry bulk

In the dry bulk segment, iron ore and scrap fell (-19.5% to 5.6 million t). High energy costs and diminishing demand for steel caused German steel production to slump. Reduced demand was especially due to disruptions in logistics chains, causing production levels of steel processing companies to drop. Coal throughput slightly rose (+3.5% to 3.9 million t), as demand for energy coal (for power plants) increased more sharply than demand for cokes (for blast furnaces) as electricity production with coal is cheaper than gas at this moment. For other dry bulk, there is a massive increase in comparison with last year (33.5% to 3.9 million t). Despite the high prices, demand for raw materials has soared.

Read the article online at: https://www.drybulkmagazine.com/ports-terminals/05052022/port-of-rotterdam-announces-1q22-freight-throughput/