Container Throughput Index: Revival of container throughput reaches Europe

According to the latest flash estimate, the Container Throughput Index of RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research and the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL) rose significantly in December compared to the previous month to a seasonally adjusted 124.3 points. The recovery after the sharp decline in global container throughput in October thus strengthened. It continued to emanate from Chinese ports, but has now also spread to container throughput in Europe.

The most important facts in brief:

• The Container Throughput Index of RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research and the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL) rose in seasonally adjusted terms to 124.3 points in December compared to 121.9 points (revised) in the previous month.
• The increase continues to be mainly due to the Chinese ports. Container throughput there rose strongly from 133.3 to 138.3.
• The North Range Index, which gives indications of the economic development in the northern euro area and Germany, rose from 105.6 to 108.2 in December compared to the previous month.
• The RWI/ISL Container Handling Index for January 2023 will be published on 28 February 2023.

Commenting on the development of the container throughput index, RWI head of economic research Torsten Schmidt says: "The recovery in container throughput strengthened towards the end of the year. The revival is now also reaching the European ports, so that the bottlenecks for some preliminary products should have eased further."

Source: RWI, Photo: Fotolia