Drewry’s latest assessment - January 2020

• After experiencing a very small increase of 0.7% in October 2019, the Drewry Port Throughput Index declined by over 2% to 128.8 points in November 2019, almost the same level as November 2018.
  
• Almost all regions with the exception of China saw monthly as well as annual declines in November 2019. China was the only region that achieved annual growth (1.3%) in its throughput index, although on a monthly basis it was 1.3% lower than in October 2019. Asia (excluding China) was at the same level as a year ago, but its index was 0.6% lower than in October 2019.
  
• North America saw the largest monthly decline of any region in November 2019. The throughput index was at 134.5 points, 6.7% lower than in October 2019. However the annual decline was much lower at 1.8%. Last year the region outperformed during this period due to fears of a tariff hike which resulted in advance cargo bookings. Latin America’s index was at the same level as in November 2018, but experienced a monthly decline of 3.2% in November 2019.
  
• The throughput index for Africa declined by another 3.6% (3.8 points) in November 2019 but the annual decline was less at 2.9 % (3 points). However, the index figures for Africa are based on a relatively small sample.
  
• The index for Europe was 3.9% lower at 119.2 compared with October 2019. However on an annual basis, the decline was only 0.9%. This is the lowest level since February which itself is usually low because of the effects of the Chinese New Year.

* Note that the index figures for Africa are based on a relatively small sample, and should be viewed with caution
# All index figures for November 2019 are preliminary, subject to change next month