More crude oil and coal shipments in Q2, fewer from Russia

In Q2 2022, 106 million tonnes of goods were unloaded at Dutch seaports, representing a year-on-year increase of 7.8 percent. More liquid and dry bulk cargo was shipped to the Netherlands. 46.6 percent of the unloaded goods consisted of liquid bulk, half of which was crude oil. More often than usual, the crude oil, natural gas and other petroleum products came from countries other than Russia. Liquid bulk cargo such as crude oil more often originated from Egypt, Iraq and the United Kingdom.

Less coal from Russia

Transhipment of unloaded dry bulk cargo increased to 31.9 million tonnes in Q2 2022. This is 16 percent up on the same period last year. More coal was unloaded in particular (+55 percent). Coal is currently a relatively cheap alternative to (Russian) natural gas. In Q2 2022, 21.2 percent of all coal shipments came from Russia. This was still 40.2 percent in the same quarter last year. Relative to Q2 2021, more coal was received from Australia (+58 percent) and the United States (+77 percent) in particular.

Substantial downturn in container shipping industry

In Q2 2022, total transhipment of goods transported in containers fell by 14.1 percent year on year. In particular, far fewer goods were exported in containers compared to the same period last year (-21.5 percent). The number of incoming and outgoing containers also decreased (-8.8 percent). However, more empty containers were transported.
Total throughput of containers to and from Russia declined to 223 thousand tonnes in Q2 2022. This is a 91-percent drop relative to the same quarter last year. In 2021, unloaded containers from Russia mostly contained wood, paper and cardboard.