- The eleventh and final bi-weekly version of the IAPH-WPSP Port Economic Impact Barometer has just been published.
- It shows a progressive improvement in hinterland transport, capacity utilization and port worker availability.
- The report also deals with responsive measures and the endorsed adjustments in port operations, along with the full or partial reopening of the economies.
- It includes several other initiatives aiming to mitigate risks and secure flows along maritime supply chains.
A recent news published in the Safety4Sea deals with the summarizing of the work since early April involving eleven global port surveys by the WPSP COVID19 Task Force, co-authored by Theo Notteboom and Thanos Pallis.
Report in September
The summary report in September will also include a section on the way forward, with specific focus on tracking cargo flows, digitalization in ports and the challenges and approaches to risk and resilience in the port environment.
Co-author Professor Thanos Pallis added that building capacity in the port sector to minimise risk is vital, and such reporting will support port resilience in terms of the present and future crises and any similar threats.
Positive moves
Several ports are certain that in the current conditions and given the numbers of blank sailings of coming weeks they will soon head to almost similar numbers of calls compared to the same period the year before.
At the same time, maritime trade volumes have also started to increase, as several economies, or major parts of them, have returned to operations and increased number of transactions.
Cargo volumes
Rise in cargo volumes
In the meantime, cargo volumes are on the rise with some cruise vessels starting up limited services. Moreover, first crew changes are reported in Latin America.
Blank sailings continue
With generalized lockdowns now limited, the return of vessels and the lower numbers of blank sailings continue, yet these happen at a slow pace.
Containership calls exceeds
As a result, for the first time since starting the measurements, the percentage of ports reporting that the number of container ships calls corresponds to a normal situation has exceeded the 50% threshold.
Similar reporting percentage
A similar reporting percentage has been recorded in the case of calls of vessels carrying other types of cargoes.
Some of the ports that experience a decline of the number of container ships calls reported that further improvement is present but not entirely captured (i.e. vessel calls were just over 5% less than normal).
No crew changes
Globally, 40% of ports in the survey reported no crew changes have taken place in week 29, down from 55% in week 27. In 4 out of 10 ports, a very limited number of crew changes have occurred (less than 5) compared to one third in week 27.
When comparing regions, European ports continues to show the best picture in terms of the crew change situation, although almost two thirds of European ports only recorded less than a handful of crew changes in the past week.
In North America, crew changes remain at a low level with 44% of ports indicating there have not been any crew changes in week 29.
Significant improvement
However, this is a significant improvement compared to the 57% in week 27. The situation in Central and South America has also slightly improved.
While there were no reported crew changes in week 27, a number of ports have indicated that crew changes have occurred this week.
Cruise ship calls remains zero
Meantime cruise ship calls remain at almost zero levels.
However, this might not last long. Cruise lines’ announcements to return to operations have become more frequent than in previous weeks.
An apt example
To give an example, the report says that in the light of recent EU- produced interim advice for restarting cruise ship operations after lifting restrictive measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, TUI announced its ‘blue cruises’ programme, where passengers remain on-board and at sea for the entire cruise, embarking and disembarking from Hamburg.
Aida has also announced the restarting of few traditional cruises in North Europe. A handful of small cruise vessels are in operation. The renewed activity recorded in the previous edition of the Barometer from Passenger and Ro-Pax vessels has not accelerated, at least not yet.
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Source: Safety4Sea
