Seventh record year in a row: Port of Antwerp passes the 190 million tonne mark

By the end of this year the port of Antwerp will have handled 190 million tonnes of freight. This represents growth of 4% compared with the already outstanding year of 2007 and is the seventh record year in a row. The figures for the first nine months were excellent, and while the last quarter clearly showed the effects of the downturn in the world economy, the port of Antwerp continued to do relatively well. As a result, Antwerp was able to gain market share within the top 3 in the Hamburg - Le Havre range (the other two being Rotterdam and Hamburg). Fewer ships called at Antwerp in 2008, but the gross register tonnage increased nevertheless.

The figures show that last year more than one hundred million tonnes of containerised freight was handled for the first time. The container volume rose by 7.7% to nearly 102 million tonnes. In terms of TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) the container volume is up by 6.0%  to more than 8.6 million TEU. The ro/ro volume remained almost the same as in 2007, with 4.4 million tonnes of wheeled freight. During the past year 339,000 cars were imported and 612,000 exported, with the total volume being up by just over 1%. Conventional/breakbulk freight was down by 15% to nearly 17 million tonnes, after an exceptional year in 2007 when there was a very high volume of steel from Asia. In 2008, however, the amount of steel was down by 14.1% to 10.5 million tonnes. The volume of forest products is also down, falling by 18% to 2,700,000 tonnes, mainly as a result of trade being lost to other ports. The fruit volume on the other hand was up slightly, rising 1% to 1.3 million tonnes and so once more consolidating Antwerp’s position as the largest fruit port in Europe.

The volume of bulk freight was up by 5.1% to 67.4 million tonnes, largely as a result of the sharp increase in dry bulk. The boost was due to among other things trading activities and the opening of a new terminal in the 6th Haven dock. The volume of liquid bulk was stationary at 39.5 million tonnes. Chemicals once more showed good growth with an increase of 4%, thus further consolidating Antwerp’s position as a distribution hub for chemical products.

The number of hours worked by dockers rose sharply during the first nine months, by 4.9%. However, the growth levelled out in October and during the last two months there was a pronounced downturn.

Antwerp Port Authority expects that the general trend over the past three months will continue during the first half of 2009. The second quarter of 2008 will be difficult to equal in any case, since in that period extra freight was diverted to Antwerp as a result of a dock strike in Le Havre.

Antwrp Port Authority Shanghai Office

Suite F2, 25th Floor, Jun Yao Int Plaza, No.789, Zhao Jia Bang Road, Shanghai 200032, China

Representative: Jan Van der Borght

Tel:021-54960376/77/78

Fax:021-54960375

E-mail:jan@you-qiao.com.cn

 

Source: Antwrp Port Authority Shanghai Office