The Port of Antwerp-Bruges is working to improve efficiency and container capacity in a bid to halt a drop in total throughput of 4.5% this first quarter compared to the same period in 2022.
Congestion in global supply chains is slowly easing as the world recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic but ongoing challenges such as the war in Ukraine and rising inflation mean that the port saw a drop of 6.6% in container traffic and 5.7% in teu compared with the first quarter last year.
“These results show that the world port is at the centre of a continuously challenging geopolitical and macroeconomic context,” said Jacques Vandermeiren, chief executive of Port of Antwerp-Bruges.
“But despite these disappointing figures, the outlook for 2023 remains positive. Falling energy prices, an improving Chinese economy and signs that the liner market is also picking up are reasons to be confident about the future,” he added.
To position itself as an attractive prospect for investors, the port, which merged a year ago, is focusing on sustainability with the construction by US-based PureCycle of a plastic recycling plant in the NextGen District where excavation work will start later this year.
Dutch tank storage company, Vopak, is also on board with plans to sustainably redevelop the former Gunvor site in Antwerp. The company will work with Port of Antwerp-Bruges to ensure the development is based on the use of renewable energy.
Finally, the port is continuing its work to modernise and deepen the Europa Terminal to make room for the latest generation of mega-ships. The trend of increasingly large container vessels looks set to continue as records are successively broken by visits by the MSC Tessa (24,116 teu), the OCCL Spain (24,188 teu) and the MSC Loreto (24,346 teu).
