Imports boost Basel

17.02.16. A 31 percent rise in petroleum product imports boosted activity at Port of Switzerland last year.
The umbrella group comprises the ports of Basel, Birsfelden and Muttenz on the Upper Rhine. Between them they handle more than 10 percent of all Swiss imports carried along the Rhine from the ARA region.
The oil terminals at Muttenz recorded 1.93 million tonnes of throughput in 2015, an increase of almost 20 percent. Birsfelden handled 2.5 million tonnes, up 10 percent on the previous year, while in Basel-Kleinhüningen 1.65 million tonnes were offloaded, a rise of 13 percent.
This jump in tonnage is almost entirely explained by the shuttering of the Tamoil refinery at Collombey in March 2015. This necessitated a ramp up of imports in refined products from the ARA.
The port authority said tonnage would have been even higher had not low water levels on the Rhine badly affected barge traffic during the second half of the year.