Oil Lifts Cargo Volume at Rotterdam Port in 2015

The Port of Rotterdam saw record growth in cargo volume in 2015.

Goods throughput in Rotterdam increased by a total of 4.9% to 466.4 million tonnes in 2015, growth that is almost entirely attributed to increased throughput of crude oil and oil products, the port of Rotterdam revealed Friday. The total volume compares to 445 million tonnes a year earlier.

“Low oil prices result in high margins for the refineries, so they have large quantities of oil shipped in for refining. This not only applies to the refineries in Europe but also to those in Russia. The latter produce a relatively large amount of fuel oil which is shipped to the Far East via Rotterdam,” Port of Rotterdam Authority CEO Allard Castelein said.

Low oil prices helped crude oil at the port rise by 8.1% to 103.1 million tonnes in 2015, the port said. The supply and transport of oil products jumped by 18.0% to 88.5 million tonnes, while LNG throughput also increased by over 90% to 2.3 million tonnes.

The handling of dry bulk fell by 1.0%. The ores and scrap volume dropped by 0.6% to 33.9 million tonnes, while coal transport and supply rose by 1.0% to 30.7 million tonnes. The small increase is due to a declining coal demand in Germany, which is focusing more on solar and wind development. The amount of other dry bulk rose by 3.9% to 12.3 million tonnes as fewer nutrients and minerals were imported.

The handling of containers also fell by 0.5% to 12.2 million TEU and by 1.1% to 126.3 million tonnes. The volume of transport to Asia rose by 2%, while there was a decrease in container transport to Latin and North America.

The category break bulk, including roll-on/roll-off traffic and other break bulk, increased by 6.5%. The strong British economy played an important role in attracting Ro/Ro traffic over the North Sea, with traffic increasing by 10.1% to 22.0 million tonnes. Other break bulk decreased by 5.5% to 5.7 million tonnes.

“Due to the need to combat climate change, the port is fully committed to energy efficiency as well as the development of renewable energy and bio-based chemistry. Rotterdam already has one of the most energy efficient refining and chemicals clusters and the largest bio-based cluster in the world. It is our ambition to retain our leading position,” Castelein added.

Writing by Nadeem (c) gCaptain