Port of Beirut (PoB) experienced exceptional activity in the month of April as receipts surged by 10.50% year-on-year (y-o-y) to $21.47M (record high in a single month for the last 5 years). This might be due to the alleviating situation in the port regarding the fourth basin, the increase in international oil prices by 15% in April, in addition to problems associated with land transportation pushing up sea shipments on the expense of land.
The increase in revenues during April pushed up the total receipts of the port in the first four months of the year by 5.98% to $72.17M despite the poor performance of the first quarter. However the increase in the volume of activity during April was not enough to pull up the total performance of the first four months. Total container activity including transshipment (TEU+TS) declined by 8.62% y-o-y to 347,185 containers during Jan-Apr period. Container activity excluding transshipment downturned by 6.26% yearly to 225,812 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) as well as TS movement falling by an annual 12.70% to 121,373 TEU, over the same period.
The total volume of merchandise (imported and exported) decreased by a yearly 13.66% to 2.45M tons. Imported cars declined by 0.81% to reach 31,133 cars. Furthermore, up until April 2015, the number of vessels that docked at the country’s main port went down from 674 vessels in April 2014 to 564 vessels.
MSC and CMA CGM, the two major shipping companies operating in the port, experienced annual declines in transshipment activity of 17.18% and 15.51% to 62,633 TEU and 49,407 TEU, respectively.
PoB Revenues by April
Source: Port of Beirut