February 27 - Bremenports has issued its 2013 throughput statistics for the ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven. Conventional cargo declined from 8.4 million tonnes to 7.9 million tonnes, a year-on-year decline of 6 percent over 2012.
Bulk cargoes fell 6.4 percent to 68.9 million tonnes, while container throughput at the gateways dropped 4.7 percent to 5.8 million teu in 2013. Vehicle transport, however, remained stable with just over 2.7 million automobiles crossing the quays.
Total ocean freight throughput fell by 6.2 percent in 2013 to 78.8 million tonnes. Import cargoes accounted for 39.1 million tonnes while export cargoes made up the 39.7 million tonne balance. Bremerhaven accounted for 66.2 million tonnes of the total ocean freight handled by the twin ports, while Bremen-City handled a share of 12.6 million tonnes.
The Port of Hamburg handled a total of 139 million tonnes of cargo during 2013, up 6.2 percent year-on-year over 2012.
However, non-containerised cargo handling fell 7.6 percent to 1.9 million tonnes. The Port of Hamburg attributed the decline to lower import volumes, which contracted 19.3 percent. The export of conventional general cargoes saw small 1.4 percent decline, which includes project cargoes from the machinery and plant sector.
General cargo handling grew 5.7 percent to 96.8 million tonnes, bulk throughput surged 7.2 percent to 42.3 million tonnes; container traffic reached 9.3 million teu, up 4.4 percent year-on-year.
