Volumes rise at Montreal

“We are pleased with our performance,” said Patrice M. Pelletier, president and CEO of MPA. “My team and I are now focused on finding innovative and proactive ways to accelerate growth, and we anticipate that containers will be the cornerstone of an overall strategy that helps the port remain our clients’ preferred choice on the North American East coast.”

The general cargo category – which includes both containerised and non-containerised cargo –is the MPA’s principal sector of activity. Volumes in this category reached 12.7m tonnes, an increase of 7.6% or 892,095 tonnes year-on-year. Containerised cargo drove much of the increase in this sector, with traffic rising sharply by 9.4% to 12.4m million tonnes, the equivalent of 1.3 million teu.

Several containers shipping lines experienced robust activity over the course of the year. Some lines added extra ships to service particular routes, and some increased their carrying capacity by using larger ships, said the MPA.