AMSTERDAM: The port of Rotterdam said Friday its handling of crude oil cargoes rose 8.1% in 2015, attributing the rise to low prices and high refinery margins.
“Low oil prices result in high margins for the refineries, so they have large quantities of oil shipped in for refining,” Port of Rotterdam Authority CEO Allard Castelein said in a statement, adding that “this not only applies to the refineries in Europe but also to those in Russia. The latter produce a relatively large amount of fuel oil which is shipped to the Far East via Rotterdam.”
As a result of the healthy fuel oil volumes from Russia, as well as increased shipments of gasoil and diesel, oil product throughput at the port increased by 18%.
LNG throughput nearly doubled but remained in absolute terms at 2.3 million mt “still small”, the port said.
Chemical products throughput fell but the throughput of palm oil and biodiesel rose.
Dry bulk was slightly down. Agri bulk fell due to good harvests in Europe which reduced the need for imports, with imports consisting mostly of oil seeds and fodder.
Coal throughout increased only marginally by 1% as lower demand for energy coal in Germany due to higher use of solar and wind energy was somewhat offset by higher demand in the Netherlands where two new power plants were commissioned. More coking coal, used in blast furnaces, also entered Rotterdam.
Total throughput rose 4.9% which “is almost entirely attributable to the increased throughput of crude oil and oil products,” the port’s CEO Allard Castelein also said, adding that in 2016, the port aims to match “the strong performance in 2015.”
