Box traffic set to hit record levels

Latest figures indicate that it is going to be a record year for the container trade. The initial surge in demand – as there was a global restocking after businesses had seriously run down inventories during the global economic crisis – has slowed in the fourth quarter, and the projected full-year containerised trade growth is now forecast at 11.5% year-onyear. But, according to London-based researchers Clarkson, this would see box traffic hit 138.4-million TEUs – the highest annual trade volume since containerisation began almost 40-years ago. On the individual trade routes the predictions are: TransPacific – 20.4-m TEUs (up 10.8% on 2009); Far East-Europe – 17.3-m (+13.8%); TransAtlantic – 5.6-m (+12%); Non mainline East-West – 15.8-m (+9.7%); North-South – 22.9-m (+10.6%); Other – 56.4-m. Container traffic in the past four years has been recorded as: 131-m TEUs in 2007 (up 11.4% on 2006); 136-m in 2008 (+4.2%); 124-m in 2009 (-9.0%); and an estimated 138-m in 2010 (+11.5%).