Rhine traffic rises at the Port de Strasbourg
The Port of Strasbourg (France) has reported good figures in river traffic on the Rhine from January to June 2019. Throughput grew by more than 6% and amounted to 3.8 million t, a slight increase of +1% compared to 2017, which was a very good year in terms of river traffic.
In H1/2019, throughput of energy products alone reached more than 600,000 t, a rise of 32% in traffic compared to the first half of 2018, due in particular to efforts to make up for the disruption caused by the incident on the Rastatt (Germany) – Basel (Switzerland) rail track. The transport of building materials climbed by 13.4% over the same period, due, firstly, to deliveries of stocks accumulated during the period of low water by the end 2018 and, secondly, to the buoyant mood of the building sector, particularly in Northern Europe.
Rail traffic on the PAS port network recorded a strong increase of +16% to almost 725,000 t. Container traffic fell slightly by 1.7% for all modes of transport combined to reach almost 189,000 teu handled. The number of rail services to and from the Port of Strasbourg continues to grow with the commissioning in April of an 8th weekly shuttle to Antwerp (Belgium) operated by Naviland Cargo. (cd)