Drewry’s latest assessment - March 2019

• There was a positive start to the new year with a 2.1% (2.6 points) month-on-month and 3.6% (4.6 points) annual increase in the global container port throughput index in January 2018. The monthly increase was entirely attributable to the largest region (China) which outpaced all other regions and acheived close to 11 points increase over December 2018.
• The index for China reached its highest level (144 points) in January, 8% growth over December 2018. This increase is likely influenced by a surge before Chinese New Year which was in February this year. However the annual increase was lower, being close to 6 points and showing growth of 4.1%.
• On a month-on-month basis, all other regions were in negative territory in January 2019. However they showed positive annual growth when compared to January 2018, except Latin America and Africa.
• North America showed strong annual growth of close to 12 points (9.0%) in the year to January 2019 resulting from front-loading due to tariff fears. However on a monthly basis, the index was slightly down compared to December 2018. Latin America witnessed close to 3 points monthly and 3.5 points annual decline in January 2019.
• Asia (excl. China) and Europe both saw around 5% annual increase in the year to January 2019. However on a monthly basis, Asia (excl. China) suffered a decline of 2.4% (3.1 points) whereas Europe remained almost unchanged.

* Note that the index figures for Africa are based on a relatively small sample, and should be viewed with caution
# All index figures for Jan-19 are preliminary, subject to change next month