The year 2020 saw a decrease in tonnes of cargo handled across all sectors. The MPA posted a drop in total traffic approaching 14% compared to 2019 volumes, with 35.1 million tonnes of cargo handled

These results reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also of the rail blockade as the year began and the strike by dockworkers and checkers during the summer. Work stoppages by the dockworkers, which lasted a total of nineteen days, including eleven days of general strike, made it necessary to divert sixteen vessels, while close to 80,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and thousands of tonnes of bulk cargo were either detained or rerouted.

Despite the declines recorded, the last quarter of 2020 was marked by an encouraging recovery, notably in container traffic with Asia, as well as in the handling of certain dry bulk commodities such as iron ore and grain.