Volume of cargo handled by mainland ports up 36.4% in May
The port of Sines contributed most to the increase, which in May, by recording a year-on-year increase of 80%, set an accumulated growth of 17.9%, corresponding to three million tonnes more.
The volume of cargo handled by mainland ports totalled 7.6 million tonnes in May, an increase of 36.4% compared to the same month in 2020, marked by low activity due to the pandemic, the Mobility and Transport Authority (AMT) said on Wednesday.
“The 7.6 million tonnes corresponds to a positive year-on-year variation of 36.4%, which results in a 5.8% increase in the total movement observed in the period January-May 2021, of 36.18 million tonnes, almost two million more than in the same period of 2020”.
However, this figure should be put into perspective, “due to the fact that, on one hand, it results from the comparison with figures from months under the negative effect of measures to combat the pandemic in its first wave, reflected by low levels of port activity (only comparable with those at the beginning of 2013), and, on the other, it is preceded by the sequence of three consecutive negative records in previous periods.”
The port of Sines contributed most to the increase, which in May, by recording a year-on-year increase of 80%, set an accumulated growth of 17.9%, corresponding to three million tonnes more.
Also the total movement in the ports of Lisbon, Aveiro and Setúbal exceeded 330,500 tonnes (corresponding to +9.3%), 203,200 tonnes (+9.5%) and 110,500 tonnes (+4.1%), respectively, in the period January to May of last year.
On the other hand, the port of Leixões registered a decrease of 1.49 million tonnes (-19%), followed by Figueira da Foz (-162,400 tonnes or -19,4%), Viana do Castelo (-25,400 tonnes or -14,7%) and Faro (-23,900 tonnes or -45,5%).
The busiest containerised cargo port was Sines, with an increase of 1.4 million tonnes (+17.9).
