Heightened freight traffic in Piraeus Containers Terminal in June, record traffic for Valencia and Belgium

June was positive as concerns the handling of containers at the two piers of Cosco Shipping Ports (mother company of PCT/Piraeus Containers Terminal) in the port of Piraeus after negative results in May.

The second quarter of 2021 was also positive (+ 2.7%) in contrast to the first quarter when TEU traffic was reduced (-5.8%) compared to the same period last year.

The port of Piraeus is gradually recovering, while it does not show the malfunctions of other ports, however in the whole of the first half of the year the container traffic from the PCT appears reduced by 1.6% compared to the same period last year.

According to the recently published data of Cosco Shipping Ports, from the two PCB piers in the port of Piraeus (the third belongs to the Piraeus Port Authority) 2,370.9 thousand TEUs were handled in the first half  reduced as mentioned above by 1.6% compared to last year. Meanwhile, 396.2 thousand TEUs were handled in June, recording an increase of 6% compared to the same month last year.

Overall, Cosco Shipping Ports in June recorded a 1% decrease in cargo handling due to reports of problems at the Yantian Terminal in China.

However, the company itself emphasizes the significant increase in cargo handling recorded in overseas ports and terminals that it controls and typically mentions the increase in the terminals of Zeebrugge and Spain (Valencia) where the increase in cargo handled was of the order of 110, 4% and 41.6% respectively.

In the first half of the year, the increase of cargoes in these two European ports was of the order of 48.1% and 14.9% respectively and is attributed by PCT cycles to the choices of shipping companies to choose in periods of increased fares the ports that due to distance increase their income.