Drewry’s latest assessment - August 2019

• After experiencing an all-time high in May 2019, the global container port throughput index declined by 1.7% to 130.8 points in June 2019. A dip in June followed by a recovery in July has been the norm over the last few years. On an annual comparison, the index is 3.1% higher than the June 2018 level of 127.7 points, reinforcing our projection of 3% global growth in container port throughput for 2019. The index is 7.1 points higher when compared to June 2017.
• All world regions saw a monthly decline in June 2019 except Latin America and Africa. However, the index for Latin America was only marginally higher (0.3%) than in May 2019 and just 0.4% up compared to June 2018 as Brazil’s economic woes are biting. Africa witnessed a monthly increase of 3% but an annual decline of 0.7% in June 2019. Note that the index for Africa is based on a relatively small sample.
• The largest world region China suffered close to one percent monthly decline in June 2019. However it was 3% (4.1 points) higher compared to June 2018, thus tracking closely our global growth figure. The index for Asia (excl China) was 2.8% lower compared to May 19 but 1.8% higher than June 2018.
• Europe witnessed the largest 3.0% (3.8 points) monthly decline in June 2019 whereas the annual increase was also the highest 4% (4.7 points) compared to the other regions. North America saw a half percent annual increase but 2.1% monthly decrease in June 19. Both of these develped world regions are currently experiencing increased volatility, driven by tariff wars and in the case of the UK, Brexit.

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