by Marek Błuś

Hold your horses! While at first glance it might appear that the regional port market struck yet another record - having advanced by 1.1% year-on-year to a total of almost 952.58 million tonnes in 2019 - there is one all caps, glaring, and extremely concerning caveat, namely the unavailability of hard data from at least a portion of the statistical offices.

We have already highlighted this issue in the past - so it would be difficult to blame the coronavirus pandemic, pointing it as the root cause - and it is truly bewildering that in the third decade of the 21st century, allegedly well into the data-driven Industry 4.0 revolution, we have to resort to estimating certain figures, also "thanks" to national agendas pulling back statistics.

That's why please wait with uncorking the champagne until we get hold of more refined data, which should be followed by additional intel on general cargo turnover, including its components, in the next issue.

Download PDF