November 27 - Container volume growth continues apace with loaded shipments on course to break 200 million teu in 2017, says global shipping consultancy Drewry.
In Drewry's last container forecast, published in October, it predicted that world loaded container traffic would this year break the 200 million teu threshold for the first time.
Recent port and trade statistics, released after the publication of the report, confirm that outcome as a certainty and even suggest that Drewry will need to raise the outlook slightly for the next issue, due at the end of the year.
The Drewry Global Container Port Throughput Index shows no sign of slowing down, with the latest reading for September being nearly 10 points above the same month in 2016.
Ignoring the monthly fluctuations, the trend has been relentlessly positive in 2017, says Drewry, following on from a more muted growth pattern last year.
According to Drewry, the index figures for September reveal that growth has been widespread with all regions showing year-on-year improvement.
The fastest growing regions were North America, up 12.6 percent from last year; Latin America, up 11.1 percent; and China, up 10.3 percent. At 4.4 percent, the slowest growth was in Europe.
