Marseilles container and cruise sectors shine

The port authority says that 2008 throughput should recover to the 2006 level of more than 100m tonnes as the Fos Cavaou methane terminal, a second Arcelor-Mittal steel foundry and the Cap Vracs clinker and cement works come on stream.

Among the 2007 high spots, January-November container traffic rose 4.5% to almost 908,000 teu, with east-west trades via Fos up 8.1% on 647,000 teu. Box tonnage of 9.2m tonnes (+7.6%) saw general cargo to 15.9m tonnes (+5.5%), which also featured a 6.5% ro-ro increase to 4m tonnes.

Liquid bulks, driven by chemicals industry demand, improved 6.2% for the period on 3.1m tonnes but dry bulks remained 19.8% worse on 12.1m tonnes. The 3m tonnes deficit was largely due to lower demand from the steel industry, which accounts for two-thirds of the trade.