Montreal box volume up 6.3%

Montreal box volume up 6.3%    Container traffic at the port of Montreal during the first six months of the year increased 6.3 percent to 611,770 TEUs, compared to 575,467 TEUs in the year-earlier period.
   The Canadian port handled 5.6 million tons of containerized cargo in the first half of this year, an increase of 8.2 percent, or 425,000 tons more than the same period last year.
   “Barring a truly unforeseen slowdown in the markets, we forecast that 2005 will be another record year for container-handling at the Port of Montreal,” said Dominic J. Taddeo, the Montreal Port Authority’s president and chief executive officer.
   The authority said it witnessed a 24 percent increase in non-containerized general cargo traffic, which totaled close to 278,000 tons, thanks to strong growth in deliveries of steel and copper cathodes and anodes.
   Liquid-bulk cargo’s during the first half of the year increased 26.8 percent to approximately 613,000 tons. Dry bulk cargo was up 19.5 percent to 2.3 million tons. At the grain terminal, marine traffic was down 24.4 percent to about 547,000 tons, due to a poor harvest, the port authority said.