Container traffic grew by 0.8% last year at the world’s 30 busiest ports, the smallest increase since the 2009 recession, according to the latest data published by Alphaliner.
The data analyst pointed out that even though new ships moved at record pace, weak demand left carriers struggling to fill ships
The global fleet grew by an additional 1.7 million TEUs, but utilisation by ship owners and operators was no more than 400 000 TEUs – a shortfall of 1.3 million TEUs, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Ports that saw the steepest declines include Jakarta in Indonesia, where traffic fell 16.6% in the first nine months compared with a year earlier, and Hamburg in Germany, where traffic dropped 9.2%, reports the Wall Street Journal.
