Sharp rise in port container volumes in July

Major ports’ volumes at 51.5mnt in July ’20 (+5% m-o-m, down ~13% y-o-y) continued to improve sequentially. This was led by a sharp rise in container volumes (+20% m-o-m, -13% y-o-y).

The recovery in containers was driven by exports, Nomura has said. In TEU terms, major ports’ container volumes at 750kTEUs rose 17.4% m-m, improving significantly, but still below pre-COVID-19 levels (average between April ’19-Feb ’20) of 836kTEUs.