Portugal’s port of Sines, Spain’s ports of Valencia and Barcelona, France’s HAROPA complex, Germany’s Bremerhaven port, Italy’s port of Gioia Tauro and Poland’s port of Gdansk achieved significant year-on-year container volume increase, putting them on the list of the top 15 container ports in the European Union during the first six months of the year.
On the other hand, COSCO’s Port of Piraeus experienced a significant decline in container throughput, putting its competitive position at risk, the PortEconomics report, has revealed.
Ports like Valencia, Algeciras, and Bremerhaven are on track to surpass the Greek port by the end of the year, potentially pushing it down to seventh place.
The traffic changes in the podium were modest with Belgium’s port of Antwerp-Bruges recording a 4.1 percent growth decreasing its distance from the leading port of Rotterdam, which reported a 2.2 percent container increase.
At the same time, Germany’s major port of Hamburg saw relatively stable volumes (-0.3%).
“If the current traffic trends continue throughout the remainder of 2024, the top 15 ranking will see some changes by the end of the year,” Theo Notteboom, a member of PortEconomics, said.
He said that Benelux ports Rotterdam and Antwerp-Bruges will remain the largest container ports in the European Union while Valencia is expected to overtake Piraeus to become the fourth largest EU port in 2024 at a respectable distance from Hamburg.
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