Rotterdam, Europe's busiest port, saw a six percent growth on cargo volumes to 92 million tonnes in the first quarter from a year earlier due to continued trend of surging world trade, it said on Tuesday. Container volumes registered the biggest growth in the first quarter, rising by 18.4 percent to 22.2 million tonnes, boosted mainly by China's trade boom, port data showed China's appetite for raw materials and its huge exports were among the main factors pushing Rotterdam total cargo volume to a record high of 354 million tonnes last year, up eight percent from 2003.
Port authorities repeated their forecast for a three percent growth in total cargo volumes this year and at least 10 percent rise in container shipping.
The port, which is working on several capacity expansion projects to handle the surging trade, handled 26.88 million tonnes of crude oil in the first quarter, slightly up from 26.73 million tonnes a year earlier.
Coal volumes jumped 10 percent to 6.415 million tonnes.
But agricultural goods cargo fell 7.8 percent to 2.26 million tonnes in the first quarter mainly due to declining imports of tapioca - animal feed, whose main supplier to Europe is Thailand.
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