Marseilles Fos cargo holds at 96m tonnes

General cargo was hit hardest by the year’s events, falling 12% to 15.2m tonnes, within which container traffic slumped 16% to 8.4m tonnes and was down 15% in unit terms to 847,651 teu after topping 1m teu for the first time in 2007.

Throughput at Fos, which handles the key east-west trades, finished 21% worse at 568,203 teu, whilst the Marseilles harbour area, which specialises in Mediterranean and Black Sea traffic, faired better dropping 3% to 279,448 teu.

A one percent rise in ro-ro traffic contributed 4.4m tonnes to the general cargo total while conventional trades added 2.4m tonnes – down 18% due to weak demand for steel products.