Freight traffic in Romanian seaports, increasing Jan-Apr 2020

transit and 1.51 million tons of cabotage. Of the total traffic, 15.62 million tons represent maritime traffic and 4.84 million tons are related to river traffic. Growth in the cereals sector continued with traffic up 49.88% to 7.72 million tons,, compared to 5.1 million tons in January-April 2019. Traffic increases were also seen in: fertilizers (+23.54%), chemicals (+55.45%), raw or processed minerals (+13.29%), cement, lime (+107.8%), and equipment and cars (+3.66%). Traffic decreases were registered for: petroleum products (-23.06%), iron ores (-31.93%), crude oil (-2.91%) solid mineral fuels (-20.47%), seeds oily and oily fruits (-12.83%) and wood (-6.08%). In the case of containerized goods, a sector in which traffic is severely affected worldwide, in Romanian seaports the decrease, at this time, is insignificant, of 2.73% in terms of quantity of goods, and 1.35% in the number of TEU. The total number of ships operated in the first four months of 2020 was higher, of 4,450, compared to 4,152 at the end of April 2019. The handling of goods in the terminals of Romanian seaports is performed normally, in compliance with all procedures for the prevention of COVID-19 diseases. Maintaining operational seaports is a common priority, of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Infrastructure, of CN APM, of port operators, of all workers in the port. Copyright (C) PortSEurope. All Rights Reserved. 2020.