Terry Hutson
IN CONTRAST to worldwide trends, South Africa's containerised traffic decreased from 1,655 million TEUs in 1998 to 1,586 million last year, a drop of more than 4%.
Durban, the country's major container port, saw a decrease of 10,24% from 1,079 million TEUs to 0,969 million. Volumes at Port Elizabeth increased 22% from 205 134 TEU to 250 846, which reflects the port diversion policy that ends this month.
There was a slight increase of 2 338 containers handled at Cape Town.
Worldwide container traffic on the other hand exceeded the 200 million TEU mark in 1999, according to a survey undertaken by Drewry Shipping Consultants in the UK.
Global volumes totalled 201 million TEU, which is an increase of 7,8% over 1998.
Much of the increase was recorded in Asia, as the Far East and Southeast Asian markets pulled out of the slump brought on by the region's financial crisis in 1997 and 1998, according to the report.
Copyright Now Media (Pty) Ltd
No article may be reproduced without the written permission of the editor
To respond to this article send your email to joyo@nowmedia.co.za
