Antwerp bucks downturn trends

With a steady growth in the volume of container freight, and liquid bulk up 7.9%, the port is poised to close the year with a total volume of 200 tonnes.

The container volume rose by 7,265,577 teu and Antwerp is winning the market share on all trading routes. The ro-ro volume was up by 2.5% to 3,463,315 tonnes, although the number of cars handled was down by 9.7%.

In terms of liquid bulk volume rose during the past nine months by 7.9% to 49,791,570 tonnes. The strongest growth during the first three quarters of the year was achieved by the chemicals sector which rose 23.7%.

By the end of the first nine months the dry bulk volume had risen by 2.4% to 10,481,166 tonnes. Sand and gravel rose a strong 27.7%, while the coal volume struggled within the second quarter, but still managed a growth of 12.8%.

Finally, the port saw a total of 10,786 seagoing ships call through within the past nine months, which is 2.5% more than at the same period last year. This increases the gross tonnage for this area by 7.7%