Volume Decline at Rotterdam Creates Ample Space to Handle Any Future “Surges”
Port Rotterdam is experiencing another year of weak demand and the slowing of retail inventories.
Recent data shows the Port of Rotterdam’s yearly container throughput in 2023 to have dropped 7% – a loss of just over 1 million TEUs – compared to January in 2022.
“For two years, you’ve seen the container volumes decreasing in Northwest Europe and also in the Port of Rotterdam and all the supplies that were built up during [the pandemic] and filled the supply chain have now eased their way out,” said Boudewijn Siemons – CEO of Port Rotterdam – told the JOC in an interview.
Port of Rotterdam is one of Europe’s main ports and will be one of the key ports in the Gemini Cooperation’s hub – that starts February 2025 – with the carriers calling APM Terminals Maasvlakte II facility.
U.S. Import Volume in February
February U.S. container import volumes fell 6% from January but increased by 23.3% from February last year – per data from Descartes.
Something interesting to keep in mind with this February data is Leap Year occurred this year, which added an additional day of capacity in the month of February.
The graph above shows the differences in U.S. container import volume in years past (2019-2023) through now.
Additionally, for container import volume at the top 10 U.S. ports there was a decrease of 7% (135,850 TEUs) from February versus January 2024, per the data.