AMSTERDAM Reuters - International trade volumes at Rotterdam port increased 15% in the third quarter yearly as international trade continued to recover from its COVID 19 slump on Tuesday, Europe's largest sea port said.
Trade flows to and from Rotterdam have been almost 9% higher in the first nine months of the year, with strong growth in almost all segments, the port said.
Is the economy picking up its upward trend? Factories, businesses and logistics are operating flat out again to meet increased demand, the port chief executive Allard Castelein said.
Strong consumer spending has pushed container freight back to pre-pandemic levels, the port said, while transport prices rose sharply.
As a consequence, the number of containers arriving in Rotterdam increased faster than the total amount of goods shipped, as the transport of relatively heavy, low-value goods declined.
The economic recovery also pushed up demand for bulk goods such as iron ore, used to make steel, crude oil and oil products.
The transport of coal nearly doubled in the first nine months of the year, as wind power and gas were not nearly enough to cover Europe's increased energy needs.