First half traffic in the sea ports in the Dutch North Sea Canal Area, which includes the ports of Amsterdam, IJmuiden, Beverwijk and Zaanstad, totalled 48.4 Mt, down 5.4% year-on-year
Amsterdam proper handled 39.5 Mt in H1 2016 (- 7%), due mainly to a 27% fall in coal shipments to 7.1 Mt, while agribulk, including fertilisers, decreased by 1.2% to 4.1 Mt. Other dry bulk rose with 5.2% to 3.2 Mt. Oil products shipments decreased slightly by 1.6% to 22.1 Mt, while other liquid bulk cargo rose by 11.7% to 1.8 Mt. Container traffic increased by 11.4% to 328,000 tonnes, while other general cargo shipments, including ro-ro, decreased from 1.1M to 879,000 tonnes.
A total of 52 sea cruise ships and 990 river cruise ships called at Amsterdam in the first half of 2016, representing a respective decrease of 4 and 20 ships compared to the total numbers of 56 and 1,010 in the same period of last year Traffic in IJmuiden increased by 1.3% to to 8.5 Mt, while Zaanstad was down 38% to 123,000 tonnes and Beverwijk was up by 148% to 333,000 tonnes.
Overall, imports in Port of Amsterdam decreased by more than 10% to 24.1 Mt in H! 2016, while exports remained virtually unchanged at 15.4 Mt. The North Sea Canal Area ports in total also saw imports fall by 7.6% to 31.4 Mt and exports decrease by 1%. The number of ships that called at the North Sea Canal Area increased slightly (0.3%).
Looking ahead, Koen Overtoom, Interim CEO of Port of Amsterdam, said the fall in coal shipments reflects "the declining demand for coal as the basis for generation of energy and we also see energy companies keeping smaller stocks at the terminals. We expect total traffic to stabilise in the second half of the year and consequently anticipate that it will probably end up at the same level as last year."
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