Northern Europe’s largest port handled 17.91 million mt of incoming and outgoing oil product volumes, which was 13.7% (2.85 million mt) less than a year earlier. 

Crude oil quantities — mostly reflecting inbound deliveries — eased 1.5% (360,000 mt) to 23.88 million mt (175 million bbl) amid low refinery occupancy rates, which the port saw at about 70% in western Europe.

Other liquid bulk cargo throughputs plunged 13.6% to 7.24 million mt, about 60% of which concerned chemical base product transfers that receded with lower refinery output.

The port authority attributed the declines to “structural developments,” citing “the over-capacity in the European refinery sector” on the back of weak local demand and “the rapid rise in American shale gas that is putting investments in the European chemicals sector under pressure.”

Incoming liquids flows slimmed 5% year on year to 38.22 million mt, with a 10.8% drop in oil product deliveries to 9.95 million mt and a 1.8% decrease in crude 
oil arrivals to 23.70 million mt. Export trade in liquids shrank 16.2% to 11.03 million mt, led by a 17.1% slump in oil product volumes to 7.96 million mt.

Annual declines in oil product throughputs were recorded in the naphtha, gasoline, kerosene and fuel oil segments, whereas gasoil throughputs were steady, the port authority said, without providing a breakdown of volumes.

The backwardation of the term structure meant that storing these products was not 
economical. “This leads to lower occupation levels in the tank terminals,” the port authority said.

In 2013, the Rotterdam port’s liquid bulk handling volumes had retreated 3.5% from the prior year’s fresh high of 214.21 million mt to 206.80 million mt against the backdrop of large-scale turnarounds at several refineries.