Last May, traffic growth continued of containers handled in the port terminals belonging to the Chinese group COSCO Shipping Ports, an increase that - as in the previous months previous - was driven by higher volumes containerized vessels made in ports in China, while the decline in growth recorded in the foreign ports, to which the decrease in traffic in located in the Mediterranean, perhaps as a result of the redistribution of containerised flows between Asia and Europe due to the sharp drop in ship transits in the Suez Canal Attacks on commercial maritime traffic led by Yemeni Houthi rebels in the Red Sea region and of the Gulf of Aden.

Specifically, in May 2024 the terminals of the group's network handled a total of 9.64 million TEUs, with a +5.4% increase over the same month last year, of which 6.76 million TEUs handled in China (+6.9%) and 2.87 million TEUs in foreign terminals (+1.9%). In the Mediterranean, where the terminals owned by the Chinese company handle less than 40% of the total recorded by the group's foreign terminals, to a significant the Piraeus Container Terminal of the port of Piraeus, which handled 319,000 TEUs in May, with a A sharp reduction of -24.1% that several observers attribute effects of the crisis in the Red Sea, but which is likely to have older roots, as the negative trend has been going on for a long time. over four years. Relevant, even if compared to a very large volume. more limited, the decrease in traffic at the Vado terminal Gateway of the port of Vado Ligure where 17 thousand were handled TEU (-32.7%), while in the same Italian airport the investee Reefer Terminal handled over 5 thousand TEUs (+10.0%). In On the other hand, there was a significant increase (+19.7%), in the volumes handled by terminal of the Spanish subsidiary COSCO SHIPPING Ports (Spain) Terminals, amounting to 342 thousand TEUs, which may have benefited from the reorganization of containerized maritime traffic. But in As in previous months, there was also an increase in the traffic handled by the Egyptian subsidiary Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT), whose terminal is located near the outlet to the Mediterranean of the Suez Canal and which does not appear to be affected by the effects of the sharp contraction in ship transits in the Egyptian channel: last May SCCT handled 345 thousand TEU, up +4.0%.

In the first five months of 2024, global traffic handled from COSCO Shipping Ports' terminals has been equal to 44.40 million TEUs, with a growth of +8.0% on the same last year, of which 30.73 million TEUs handled from terminals in China (+9.9%) and 13.67 million TEUs from terminals foreign countries (+4.0%). In the Greek port of Piraeus alone, traffic is amounted to 1.59 million TEUs (-13.5%).