Antwerp Port sees cargo recovery in 2010

Reuters quoted Mr Eddy Bruyninckx CEO of Antwerp Port as saying that it will see a recovery in cargo volumes at the beginning of 2010 at the earliest. He said that "I cannot really see any signs that the slowdown is bottoming out. I would not expect a recovery before 2010."
Mr Bruyninckx said that Antwerp had a turnover of about 190 million tonnes in 2008, but that figure is expect to drop by about 15% to around 160 million tonnes 2009, with some improvement seen in the second half. He added that "In the seventies, volumes stagnated for almost 10 years. I think they will climb back faster now. Nobody can say how long it will take though."
Mr Bruyninckx is confident that this gave Belgian port, which contributes 10.4% of the gross domestic product of the Dutch speaking region of Flanders, an edge over rival Rotterdam. He said that Antwerp's chief challenge was to deepen the Schelde River in the Netherlands, which is subject to political negotiations. Other priorities include improving rail and road links.
Coal and ore were the worst hit, down by 40% to 50% from last year, initially because of large stockpiles built up. Steel, paper and pulp were down by some 30% and traffic in containers, carrying a diverse range of goods from scrap to hi fi equipment, had dropped by 17%. Antwerp, which has won market share in tank storage, also has 5.4 million square metres of covered warehousing to hold goods such as coffee and tobacco and treat goods such as steel.

Source: Port News