After kicking off the year on a par with the previous six years, when records were broken in the first quarter, the events of the year reversed this trend and 2020 ended with a 5.5% drop in containerized volumes. It should be noted, though, that this business segment performed better than anticipated in the initial MPA forecast for 2020. In total, 14.3 million tonnes, or more than 1.6 million TEUs, transited through our five container terminals in 2020.
The Port of Montreal’s growth engine in the container sector remained Asia, which represents 28% of market share, dipping 2% from 2019. The hardest-hit markets were Northern Europe, the Mediterranean and Latin America, down 10%, 7% and 9% respectively. The Middle East market surprised with a 7% upswing in 2020 compared to 2019.
Notwithstanding these declines, the container sector showed a solid recovery in the last quarter of 2020. Specifically, traffic with Asia rose 6% in the last quarter. It is also noteworthy that the trade balance between imports and exports held steady with a 52% import and 48% export split.