DFDS: July volume report: Strong passenger recovery, drop in channel freight market

Ferry – freight: Total volumes in July 2022 were 6.2% below 2021. Activity was overall robust in freight markets except for parts of the Baltic Sea region and the Channel Dover Strait corridor.
Ferry – passenger: The number of passengers increased fivefold to 639k equal to 90% of volumes in July 2019, the latest comparable month pre-Covid-19.

Ferry – freight:

North Sea volumes were overall below 2021 as UK routes were on level while routes between Sweden and the Continent were below 2021. The latter decrease was due to lower automotive and paper volumes as well as high activity for these segments last year in July. Volumes in the Mediterranean network continued to grow reflecting a high level of Turkish industrial production and exports.

Channel’s volumes were below 2021 following a decrease in total market volumes. Baltic Sea’s volumes were below 2021 due to the war in Ukraine. Volumes were mainly lower between Germany and Lithuania.

For the last twelve months 2022-21, the total transported freight lane metres decreased 0.6% to 43.6m from 43.9m in 2021-20.

Ferry – passenger: Transport segments recovered faster than leisure segments. The number of cars equalled 92% of volumes in 2019.

For the last twelve months 2022-21, the total number of passengers was 2.5m compared to 0.8m in 2021-20 and 5.1m in 2019.

DFDS ferry volumes
	July				LTM*
Freight	2020	2021	2022	Change	2020-19	2021-20	2022-21	Change
Lane metres, '000	3,503	3,617	3,393	-6.2%	39,437	43,864	43,609	-0.6%

Passenger	2020	2021	2022	Change	2020-19	2021-20	2022-21	Change
Passengers, '000	239	118	639	443.3%	3,259	835	2,469	195.5%
*Last twelve months