Mainland ports handled 11,9% less cargo in the first half, year-on-year, totaling 39,4 million tonnes, according to a note from the Mobility and Transport Authority (AMT).
Even so, according to the regulator, “in relation to the month of May 2020, June registered a slight slowdown in the decrease in activity, recovering 2,8 percentage points. This slight slowdown is mainly determined by Leixões and Sines, whose evolution is, respectively, from -25,4% to -10,3% and from -41,3% to -28,3%”, said the AMT.
The break "is explained by the combination of negative behavior observed in most ports, with the exception of Figueira da Foz and Faro, being more expressive in Sines and Lisbon, as they registered, respectively” drops of 2,8 million tons and 1,4 million tons, at a time when covid-19 paralyzed commercial activity throughout the world.
The AMT detailed that the coal market, "whose variation is, without a doubt, independent of the covid-19 pandemic" is the cargo "which has the most significant reduction" with -1,9 million tons, which corresponds to a drop 86,4%, explained by the fact that Sines landed only around 75 thousand tons (-96,2%), is read in the same note.
The regulator explained that these values "result from the almost total suspension of the activity of the thermoelectric power plants of Sines and Pego", with respective production drops of 99,1% and 76,3%, "fed with this fossil fuel, as a result the strong economic penalty associated with the high emissions of CO2” (carbon dioxide).
According to the AMT, the crude oil and petroleum products markets recorded falls in this period of 426,26 tonnes (-7,4%) and 1,34 million tonnes (-14,6%), respectively, reductions that "they are unequivocally a result of the pandemic crisis, as it led to a strong retraction in fuel consumption, nationally and internationally, and, consequently, to an interruption and reduction of its production due to lack of storage capacity", justified the AMT .
Containerized cargo also recorded a drop in the first half of 2020, of 852,3 thousand tons (-5,4%), “explained almost exclusively by the behavior of the port of Lisbon, which sees its volume reduced by 1,04 million tons. tons (-44,3%), a behavior that cannot be dissociated from the existing labor disturbance climate, resulting from persistent advance notices of strike by port workers”.
According to the same statement, the port of Sines now "has a share of 49,2% of the total movement of cargo handled, 0,4 percentage points lower than in the same period of 2019" after a reduction of 12,7, 23% in the first half of the year, with Leixões in second place with 10,6%, Lisbon with 8,1%, Setúbal with 6%, Aveiro with 2,5%, Figueira da Foz with 0,5%, Viana do Castelo with XNUMX% and Faro with 0,2%.
In turn, the container segment reached a total volume of 1,31 million TEU [containers unit of measure], a reduction of 7,7%, “resulting from an increase in the month of June, which registered a decrease 13,6%, following the 11,8% recorded in May”.
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