Container growth pushing Antwerp to limit

During the first six months of the year container freight totalled 66,298,043t, a growth of 8.2% compared with the first six months of 2017. The port handled 5,567,905 teus (up 8.3%), while May was a record month, with a peak container volume of more than 1m teus.

Port Authority CEO Jacques Vandermeiren said: “The growth figures confirm our role as a leading world player and demonstrate the continuing attractiveness of the port. But they also confirm the previous forecasts that we will soon reach our maximum container capacity.”

Planning for growth

Speaking about future management, he added: “During the past period we have well exceeded the optimum utilisation level for the terminals below the locks, which can have a negative impact on efficiency. We will therefore continue to emphasise the importance of having additional and commercially useful container capacity below the locks.”

Port alderman Marc Van Peel added: “We appreciate the efforts of the Flemish government to arrive at a legally robust decision in favour of the complex project to build additional container capacity for our port. We now plead for a follow-up study of among other the nautical feasibility.

“Everybody stands to gain from a solution that will enable us to achieve the desired sustainable growth for our port. In this connection mobility is a constant concern for the Port Authority, to which it gives highest priority, and it goes without saying that we are prepared to take the right series of measures with all stakeholders. Creating additional commercially useful container capacity below the locks is a first step for us in the further development of the port.”

Trade with Europe experienced the strongest growth, up 14.2%, partly due to the port being able to win back transhipment freight, which last year suffered a dip due to a temporary shortage of dock labour.

Trade with North America was up by 10.3%, although the first quarter of 2017 was fairly weak, said the port. On the Asian market there was growth of 3%.