Port of Rotterdam sees dry bulk imports fall

The total amount of dry bulk handled in the Port of Rotterdam fell by 8.7% to 39.4 million tonnes in the first half of 2012.

Agribulk (grains, seeds, animal feed ingredients) throughput was down by a tenth to 4.1 million tonnes. The port puts these numbers down to an increase in the price of products on the world market and also that a few packages won from Amsterdam last year were lost again.

However the amount of coal rose 1.9% to 12.9 million tonnes and the Port believes, as coal becomes a more seasonal raw material, these figures may well increase again towards the end of the year.

However the Port handled a total of 222 million tonnes of cargo overall during the first half of this year, which is 3.2% up on 2011.