Much better than expected
Europe’s ports experienced 2020’s ’annus horribilis’ in many different ways. Only Antwerp improved; Algeciras maintained its throughput. In the end box volumes were better than most had expected.
In 2020 every crystal-ball gazer painted a more negative scenario than the next one. In the end it didn’t turn out half as drastic as expected.
The year of the pandemic 2020 saw those 15 European gateways with the largest box throughput handle a total of 76.8 million teu, or 2.8% less than in 2019.
Some of the maritime hubs registered a significant double-digit decline in their volumes of goods handled in the first half of the period under review. Thereafter improvements in the second half of 2020 helped many to recover from the fallout from the pandemic. A look at the details reveals some surprises, however.
Largely unchanged ranking
The Dutch port of Rotterdam once again stayed the European front runner, handling 14.35 million teu (–3.2% vis-à-vis 2019). Antwerp was the only large European gateway to grow, namely by 1.4% to 12 million teu. The fall in Hamburg amounted to 7.9%, resulting in the bronze medal, with a total throughput of approximately 8.5 million teu (see also our article on page 8 of ITJ 11-12 / 2021).
The port of Valencia, in turn, managed to reduce its fall of 9.1% in H1 to a deficit of only 0.5% vis-à-vis the previous full year. Its 5.4 million teu handled in 2020 meant it came fifth amongst European hubs. The Greek port of Piraeus, China’s gateway to Europe, suffered more from the pandemic than others, losing 3.6% year-on-year to register 5.44 million teu of containers handled. The main reason for this performance lay in declining import traffic.
Three Spanish ports in the top ten
In 2020 the 5.1 million boxes that passed through Algeciras represented a mere 0.4% fall vis-à-vis 2019, meaning the port that was the least affected by the pandemic after Antwerp took sixth place. The port of Barcelona (see also page 7 of ITJ 11-12 / 2021) handled 2.96 million teu, and retained its tenth place from last year in the overall European rankings.
