Half-yearly review at Dunkerque Port shows 13 percent rise in cross-channel traffic

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Traffic at Dunkerque-Port has been making a steady recovery since February 2015. The total to the end of June, up 1 percent, 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 percent. However, coal volumes were encouraging and reached 2.22 MT, up 11 percent.

Grain confirmed the good performance of 2014 making an exceptional half-year with more than 2.03 MT, a leap of 53 percent. 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 percent overall with a tonnage of 9.78 MT and Cross-Channel traffic saw an excellent start to the year with 7.65 MT (+13 percent).

The number of trucks and trailers was up 18 percent with 330,000 freight units. Passengers and tourist cars increased respectively by 29 percent with 1.33 million passengers and 10 percent 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 percent). However, full containers alone rose by 10 percent to 98,000 TEU.

General cargoes increased by 37 percent to a tonnage of 669 KT.

France’s third-ranking port, Dunkirk is well known as a port handling heavy bulk cargoes for its numerous industrial installations. It has also built its reputation in other sectors: the world’s busiest passenger port (Calais-Dunkirk); France’s largest harbour complex (traffic of more than 90 MT at Calais-Dunkirk); France’s leading energy hub; France’s leading port for containerised fruit imports; France’s leading rail port; the region’s largest waterway port; and the first LNG terminal (end 2015).

Dunkirk is also a Sustainable Port (Natural Heritage Master Plan SDPN, Sustainable Development & Action Plan PA2D, Natural Environment Management Plan PGEN, etc).

For more information, please visit:  http://www.dunkerque-port.fr/en/