Marseille Fos Port reports increased throughput in first half 2015

Throughput for all main cargo categories at the French port reached 40.4 million tons for the first half of the year, an increase of 6 percent compared with same period last year.    Cargo throughput at Marseille Fos Port increased in all major categories to a total of 40.4 million tons for the first half of 2015, up 6 percent from the same period last year.
   Container traffic at the French Mediterranean port was up 8 percent to 627,383 TEUs, with both harbor areas reporting an increase in volumes. Traffic at the deepsea Fos terminals was up 7 percent to 506,826 TEUs and container volumes through Marseille, which primarily handles shortsea trade, were up 9 percent to 120,557 TEUs.
   General cargo volumes at Marseille Fos increased 2 percent to nearly 9.1 million tons. Conventional trades decreased 14 percent to 1.2 million tons, while roll-on/roll-off cargo increased 2 percent to 1.88 million tons.
   Liquid bulks were up 7 percent to 24.12 million tons, facilitated by a fall in crude oil prices, the port said in a statement. Crude oil and petroleum were up 7 percent to 22.36 million tons, with crude oil imports up 19 percent to 13.5 million tons. Refined products were down 11 percent. Liquefied petroleum gas was up 17 percent to 1.17 million tons. The recovering import levels of methyl tertiary-butyl resulted in a 7 percent increase in liquid chemicals and agro-products to 1.76 million tons.
   Dry bulks at Marseille Fos increased 8 percent to 7.3 million tons. Steel industry raw material imports increased 4 percent to 5 million tons, agro-bulks dropped 12 percent to 0.47 million tons thanks to a weak cereals season, while other bulks increased 31 percent to 1.8 million tons as a result of new cast iron traffic, lime traffic and timber trade.