EMSA released its monthly report focusing on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in shipping traffic, reports Safety4sea.
EU port ship calls decline
By analyzing ship calls at EU ports it was found that the number of ships calls at EU ports declined by 10% in the 2020 compared to 2019.
According to the report, the on-going global outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is having an impact on global shipping, affecting all shipping sectors from passenger ships to container ships and oil tankers.
In November 2019, there were 59,549 ship calls at EU ports, and in November 2021 there were 61,477 ship calls. The number of calls increased by 3% in comparison with 2019.
In fact, in the current month of 2021, there is an increase of the number of port calls with a positive 10.1% variation to the 2019 values and a small decrease of -4.5% of the total gross tonnage calling.
Up to now in 2021, most of EU-MS flagged fleets increased their number of port calls compared with 2019 and some of them with very significant increases.
- The decreases this month are more prominent in Croatia, Poland, and Italy.
- On the other hand, there are very significant increases for Latvia, Iceland as well as Ireland and Estonia
Cruise ships affected
The number of ship calls per month in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and the trends between 2020 and 2019 and between 2021 and 2019. It has been decided to use year 2019 as a reference since it was the last year without COVID-19 in Europe.
The number of ships calls in November 2021 increased by 3% compared to the same month in 2019. The most significantly affected sectors have been the Cruise ships, Refrigerated cargo ships and Vehicle carriers.
EMSA also analyses how the shipping routes from Europe to China and from Europe to the US have been affected. In 2020, the ship traffic from Europe to China and the US has declined when compared to same periods in 2019. In 2021 the traffic to and from China is still below the 2019 values even though increasing above the values from 2020.
However, in the traffic with the US, in particular the exports from the EU have recovered and increased to values above pre-pandemic since March 2021, while the imports from the US are now reaching the pre-pandemic values.
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Source: Safety4sea
