Container throughput continues to decline

JULY 23, 2013 — The respected RWI/ISL Container Throughput Index decreased notably from a corrected 116.3 to 115.3 in June. The index is continuing to move up and down, as in previous months, but the underlying trend since the turn of the year 2012/13 is a decline, suggesting, at most, a moderate expansion of world merchandise trade during the first half of the year.

The May value of the index was corrected upwards by 0.6 point to account for positive results for several ports whose data were not yet available last month. The amplitude of the revision was slightly higher than average. The current flash forecast for June is based on a sample of 35 ports handling roughly 72% of the container traffic represented in the Index.

Maintained by the Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (RWI) and the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL), the Index is based on data from 73 world container ports accounting for approximately 60% of worldwide container handling. The ports are continuously monitored by the ISL as part of its market analysis. As many ports release information about their activities within two weeks of month’s end, the RWI/ISL Container Throughput Index is a reliable early indicator for the development of international merchandise trade and hence for the activity of the global economy.

The RWI/ISL Container Throughput Index for July 2013 will be published on August 27.