London's Container Trades Statistics reports that August Asia-Europe box volumes increased 8.6 per cent year on year to 1.4 million TEU while year-to-date throughput was up 8.2 per cent 10.4 million TEU.

Asia-northern Europe traffic increased 9.1 per cent in August 945,123 TEU while year-to-date volumes increased 8.8 per cent as Asia-west Med/North Africa rose 8.7 per cent year to date to 1.8 million TEU.

Even Asia-eastern Med and Black Sea volumes increased 5.4 per cent up on last year from January to August at 1.8 million TEU.

But analysts at MDS Transmodal attributed the surprisingly good performance to inventory restocking, rather than a general economic upturn..

"This comes as a surprise as economic indicators, GDP above all, do not suggest improvement especially for the euro-area countries," said the analysts' report.