Marseille Fos box volumes slip 3% in Q1

The French sea port handled 304,664 TEUs from January to March 2016 as container throughput grew 3 percent at terminals in Fos, but dropped 27 percent at Marseille facilities.    The Port of Marseille Fos in France saw total container volumes in the first quarter of 2016 slip 3 percent to 304,664 TEUs compared with the same 2015 period.
   Throughput at Fos terminals grew 3 percent year-over-year to 263,038 TEUs, but volumes at facilities on the Marseille side fell 27 percent to 41,626 TEUs for the quarter.
   The port handled a total of 20.17 million metric tons of cargo from January to March in a nearly identical repeat of 2015’s first-quarter result. 
   Throughput of general cargo rose 1 percent to 4.49 million metric tons for the port as a whole, while liquid bulk volumes were stagnant at 12.36 million metric tons and dry bulk cargoes dipped 3 percent to 3.3 million metric tons.
   General cargo activity at Marseille fell 3 percent despite roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) traffic increasing 13 percent to 1 million metric tons. Ro-ro trailer throughput grew 12 percent year-over-year to 45,688 trailers for the quarter, while import/export vehicles jumped 35 percent to 51,492 units.         
   Liquid bulk cargoes primarily consisted of oil and gas – 11.51 million metric tons – with crude imports rising 3 percent to 7.45 million metric tons compared to first quarter 2015. Refined products fell 21 percent to 2.19 million metric tons due to a drop in both imports and exports, but liquid natural gas (LNG) volumes soared 57 percent to 1.18 million metric tons.
   The port handled 3.3 million metric tons of dry bulk cargo during the first quarter, down 3.3 percent from the same 2015 period, partly due to an 8 percent slump in raw materials to 2.2 million metric tons.