IN the first nine months of the year, Rotterdam experienced a drop in imports of 500,000 TEU compared to the same period in 2022, reports New York's Journal of Commerce.

The Port of Rotterdam disclosed its third consecutive quarter of negative growth.

While the fourth quarter is expected to bring somewhat easier year-on-year comparisons, Europe's largest container port is unlikely to fully recover to pre-pandemic volume levels.

Various factors, including rising inflation, sluggish global economic growth, regional geopolitical tensions, and shifting toward spending on services rather than products, have weighed on European markets throughout the third quarter.

Consequently, the throughput at Rotterdam saw a 7.2 per cent year-on-year decrease, with a total of 10.2 million TEU handled during the first nine months of 2023.

The containerised imports, amounting to 5.2 million TEU, witnessed an eight per cent decline, representing nearly half a million fewer TEU handled.

Meanwhile, exports from Rotterdam, totaling 4.9 million TEU, were down 6.4 per cent, equivalent to a reduction of 334,000 TEU.

"As we expected, the throughput in the first nine months was lower than last year but is in line with our prognoses," said Port of Rotterdam Authority CEO Boudewijn Siemons.

"The economy has not yet recovered, and this continues to impact throughput figures."