Peak season fizzles out
October 19, 2011
Global container volumes fell 1% in August for only the second time in 11 years, according to a report by Macquarie Equities Research.
Macquarie analyst Robert Joynson said the fall was due to a weakening economy and a rise in inventory issues of consumer goods in Europe and the US.
August is usually the peak month for containers, with volumes normally around 2% more than July.
The previous time that August volumes were worse than July’s was in 2008, when the month-on-month change was down by 0.4%.
“Global container traffic was unseasonably weak in August — the first month in 2011 for which this has been the case,” Macquarie said.
The report says global container throughput was up 5.7%, year on year in August, but less than the 7.6% increase in May, 7.1% in June and 7.3% in July.
