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At an annual meeting last week, the Montreal Port Authority (MPA) announced the Port of Montreal last year handled 25.9 million tons of cargo, up 5.7 percent compared with 2009 volume. Every cargo sector registered gains.

Container volume climbed 6.8 percent to about 1.3 million 20-foot equivalent units, in part because Mediterranean traffic soared 33 percent.

“This reflects the importance of hub ports in the Mediterranean that receive cargo from Southeast Asia via the Suez Canal, and that we are in business with,” said MPA President and Chief Executive Officer Sylvie Vachon in a prepared statement.

More shipments of petroleum products, including jet and fuel oil, and gasoline, helped drive up liquid bulk volume 4.9 percent year over year to 8.15 million tons.
 
In the dry bulk sector, a “recovery in the areas of iron ore, zinc and fertilizers, and the receipt of grain by rail and trucks” primarily contributed to a 5.1 percent gain to 5.6 million tons, MPA officials said. The port, which operates its own rail network, which is linked to CN and Canadian Pacific lines.