The ongoing crisis in the Red Sea is causing turmoil in the movement of containers at the port of Piraeus.
It is the first time that the largest port of the Mediterranean, in the two terminals managed by Piraeus Container Terminal, has recorded a month-on-month drop of 15.4% and a quarterly drop of 11.4%.
A drop of 3.76% was also recorded in the handling of containers from Pier I, which is under the management of PPA.
Executives of the container market estimated that the situation will remain negative in cargo handling for the next period not only in the port of Piraeus, but also in the rest of the Mediterranean ports, since as long as the crisis in the Red Sea continues, the disruptions in all trade routes will persist.
It is noted that after the ongoing attacks by the Houthi rebels of Yemen, most container shipping companies prefer the Cape of Good Hope, which means a significant increase in tonne-miles for ships, as well as container delivery times.
At the same time, Iran’s seizure of the container ship MSC Aries creates a new “headache” in the supply chain.
Executives of the container market estimated that the port of Piraeus has been mainly affected due to its strategic position in the Eastern Mediterranean. Because a ship that will circumnavigate Africa will have to cross the entire Mediterranean, from Gibraltar, in order to dock at the country’s major port.
In 2023, the total traffic in the country’s largest port reached 5,100,920 TEUs, marking an increase of 2%, which once again led the port of Piraeus in the fourth place among the leading ports in Europe.
Traffic at the 3 piers of Piraeus
According to data published by Cosco Shipping Ports, a total of 343 thousand containers were handled from piers II and III of the Piraeus Container Terminal (SEP) in March 2024, compared to 405 thousand in the same month of 2023, down 15.4%.
Between January and March 2024, container traffic decreased by 11.4% compared to the same period in 2023.
In total, the two piers handled 931.3 thousand containers in the first quarter of 2024 compared to 1.051 million in the corresponding period of 2023.
From Pier I of the port of Piraeus, the handling of containers in the quarter of 2024 fell 3.76% compared to 2023. Specifically, between January and March, 133,000 TEUs were handled versus 128,000 TEUs in the corresponding period of 2023.
In February 2024 the drop in container traffic in the SEP was 5.1% in a month and 8.9% in two months.
The total handling of containers in the 36 ports controlled by Cosco Shipping Ports, a member of the Cosco Shipping Group, in March 2024 increased by 6.3% compared to the same month last year, reaching 9.189 million TEUs against 8.642 million TEUs in 2023.
In the first quarter of 2024, the traffic in all the terminals managed by Cosco Shipping Ports reached 25,592 million TEUs, compared to 23,425 in the same period of 2023, up 9.2%.
