In the first nine months of 2011, the company had handled 40% more cargo than in the same interval a year before.
“The end of 2011 was slower than the rest of the year and the start of the new year seems to confirm it. In December and January traffic was down at least 20% compared with the first eleven months of last year,” said Daniel Lintes, general manager of Socep Constanta. “I get the feeling that we will be back to 2010 results this year, at best.”
He says grain and chemical traffic saw the steepest decline, by more than 20%, a trend that can be seen in the entire harbor.
“There are alarming signals about bulk cargo mainly. This year looks like it will not be a good agricultural year, either. Traffic of rolled goods seems to be about the same as last year,” Lintes added.
International cargo transport took a hit at the end of 2011 as the growth pace of the major economies of the world slowed down and analysts even expect decline in Europe.
Baltic Dry Index, an index that provides an assessment of the price of moving the major raw materials by sea and takes into account over 20 shipping routes, fell by 43% in the past month, to 974 points, reaching a multi-annual low. It only went lower than that in the crisis year 2008.
The situation looks similar to what happened at the end of 2008, when sea traffic plunged at the onset of the world crisis. Traffic in Constanta harbor fell by 50% in a matter of months.
Socep posted 7.2 million lei (EUR1.7 million) in net profit in the first nine months of 2011, 12 times higher than the corresponding period of 2010, as a result of the higher traffic, which drove the company’s revenue up 40.8%. (EUR1=RON4.3473)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)