Port of Antwerp抯 1st quarter volume up 3.4%

The Port of Antwerp in Belgium handled 46.2 million tons of freight in the first three months of 2008, a 3.4 percent increase from the first quarter of 2007.

Container volume grew 7 percent to 24.3 million tons, or by 6.1 percent in unit terms at 2.08 million TEUs. Conventional/breakbulk freight handled during the three months declined 13.3 percent year on year to 4.3 million tons, as last year's enormous spike in imports of iron and steel products from China and India was not repeated. Antwerp said its steel volume for the period was down 11.6 percent.

Nevertheless, everything points to this trade booming once more in the next few months,?it said.

Roll-on/roll-off traffic showed quarterly growth of 6.4 percent to 1.16 million tons. During the past three months, 236,457 cars were loaded or unloaded at the port, 10.2 percent more than in the same period last year.

Liquid bulk volume was flat at 9.7 million tons, while dry bulk increased 8.3 percent to 6.7 million tons, due mainly to the larger amounts of coal and ore being handled.

The number of ships calling at the port after three months increased 0.9 percent to 4,070, although due to increases in the size of the vessels the gross register tonnage rose 2.5 percent to 71.4 million GRT. 

Source: American Shipper