Leading French port group Haropa saw its container throughput fall 23% to 530,000TEU in the first quarter as box ship calls were reduced under the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The grouping, which comprises leading French container port Le Havre and the River Seine ports of Rouen and Paris, said that it began to feel the effects of the pandemic from mid-March on. Container vessels made 156 calls during the month, 16 fewer than in March 2019.
Box traffic was also affected in January and early February by ongoing industrial action by port workers taking part in national protests against a French government’s pension reform plan.
Haropa warned that it expected container traffic to decline further in the current month.
“The effects of the pandemic-related economic crisis are now also being seen through a slowdown in global consumption and European exports, which will have a significant impact on container and ro-ro traffic for import and export in April,” it said.
Haropa’s overall throughput during the first quarter fell 12.8% to 20.38 million tonnes. Apart from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, its performance was affected by unexpected French refinery shutdowns, one following a fire at the end of last year and another for technical reasons.
The reduction in traffic in the first quarter was only partially offset by cereals exports, which increased 18% to a record 4.26 million tonnes during the quarter.
To take account of the difficulties of port-based companies in the current crisis, Haropa said it had postponed the payment of site fees for the 1 March – 30 June period until 10 July.
Haropa, which claims to be the fifth biggest port complex in northern Europe, saw its total traffic fall 5% to 90 million tonnes of traffic in 2019. Container traffic alone dipped 3.5% to 2.9 million TEU, mainly as a result of the December industrial action.
Andrew Spurrier
European Correspondent
