Traffic at Dunkerque-Port has been making a steady recovery since February 2015. The total to the end of June, up 1%, has now exceeded the 2014 traffic figure and reached 23.37 MT.
Ore made a slower start to the year than in 2014: traffic was 6.06 MT, a drop of 12%. However, coal volumes were encouraging and reached 2.22 MT, up 11%. Grain confirmed the good performance of 2014 making an exceptional half-year with more than 2.03 MT, a leap of 53%. The 2014/2015 grain campaign set a new absolute record with 3.02 MT, beating the previous record of 2.4 MT for the 2013/2014 campaign.
General cargoes were up 12% overall with a tonnage of 9.78 MT.
Cross-Channel traffic saw an excellent start to the year with 7.65 MT (+13%).
The number of trucks and trailers was up 18% with 330,000 freight units. Passengersand tourist cars increased respectively by 29% with 1.33 million passengers and 10% with 290,000 vehicles.
Containers are recovering. The replacement of the LION export service by the OCEAN 3 import service has significantly affected the transhipment to Asia of empty containers at the Flanders Terminal, and the total was 151,000 TEU (-2%). However, full containers alone rose by 10% to 98,000 TEU.
General cargoes increased by 37% to a tonnage of 669 KT.
«Small» solid bulk traffic was satisfactory at 1.25 MT (-6%).
Solid bulks were stable at 11.58 MT.
Petroleum products fell 27% to 1.80 MT, following the decline in activity at the SRD and TOTAL facilities.
Other liquid bulks were down 43% at 221 KT.
Overall, liquid bulks slumped by 29% to 2.02 MT.