Port of Antwerp: Professional Multi-handler in European “Yellow Banana”

Located in the heart of Europe, Port of Antwerp stands at the upper end of the tidal estuary of the Scheldt and enjoys a more central location in Europe than the majority of North Sea ports. As the renowned European port giant it is entitled with lots of fame as the largest European chemical cluster, the largest warehouse concentration in Europe, No. 1 break-bulk port in cargo handling ……In 2007, Port of Antwerp handled more than 16,000 ships representing a total gross tonnage of 288 million tons. This time Shippingchina.com has the honor to take the interview with Mr. Luc Arnouts, CCO of Port of Antwerp.

J: Welcome to China. Would you please give us a general view on your port?
Mr. Luc Arnouts: Thank you. Port of Antwerp is not only an important port today but also as early as 16th century, it is the biggest European port and second European city. Today Antwerp Port Authority (APA) is an autonomous municipal body with the city as the 100% shareholder. As landlord port, APA gives the private companies chances to manage and operate the terminals. At present, Port of Antwerp becomes the multifunctional port in handling its maritime cargo, industry and logistics in the European center of consumption and production, the so called “Yellow Banana”. An excellent collaboration exists between the Port Authority and Alfaport, the organization of the private sector.

J: Thank you for your explanation. Could you present more details on the cargo handling?
Mr. Luc Arnouts: In 2007 the maritime cargo transport reached 183 million which consists of 52% container, 22% liquid bulk, 13% general cargo and 13% dry bulk. A very important factor for container is that there is a quite good bounce between unloading and loading, import and export. So the 50%-50% trip means for vessels bringing cargo to Antwerp they could get full-loaded back when they leave. For general cargo we are NO.1 in Europe with steel (12 million tons), fruit (1.3 million tons), rolling stock (1.1 million pieces), and forest products (3.3 million tons) and so on. For the dry and liquid bulk, we have coal, ore, fertilizers mainly import from Russia, Algeria, North America of 25 million tons and also 40 million tons for liquid bulk as we are the largest petro chemical cluster in Europe, which is thanks to the strong presence of the chemical industry in the port itself.

J: Thank you for the detailed information on cargo handling. Then why is the chemical industry so popular in your port?
Mr. Luc Arnouts: Well I would like to give historical explanation for that. As early as 1950s after the 2nd world war, the politicians presented a very clear vision to give the land  to chemical companies at very competitive price to attract business to Antwerp, to create employment and to rebuild the economy.
Now we are still taking the fruit from that. Then the cargo handling area belongs to us and the industry area belongs to the chemical companies, which results the bounce, the 50%-50% trip just mentioned. By the port and the inner river they can get the material easily and get their finished or semi-finished products easily out. There is a very extensive network of pipelines coming to Antwerp and going to different places. For instance, the pipeline of 30 million tons from Rotterdam to Antwerp transports one of the basic materials crude oil, which is too deep to drag at Antwerp every year. Now famous international chemical companies can be found such as BASF, DuPont, ExxonMobil and so on.

J: You mentioned “Yellow Banana” at the beginning. What does it refer to and how Port of Antwerp acts in the European “Yellow Banana”?
Mr. Luc Arnouts: The banana, including the international great cities as Frankfurt, Milan, Barcelona, Madrid, Marseille, Lyon, Paris, and London and so on, contains the main European production and consumption centers with 60% of the European purchasing power within 500 km from Antwerp.
Port of Antwerp acts as the logistics provider with its rich connectivity. With more than 5.3 million m² of covered storage space, it by far has the largest warehouse capacity in Europe, which offers not only storage but also added value activities such as repackaging, labeling, quality control etc. Upon the rich connectivity, the port is surrounded by highways directly to neighbor countries, connected to European waterway network by Scheldt-Rhine canal & Albert canal, and located on a junction of international lines of 1100 km of railway tracks.

J: Thank you for your thorough presentation for Port of Antwerp. And for the future of port’s construction, does APA has some new developments?
Mr. Luc Arnouts: In 2030 we expect the port to handle 300 mio tons comparing with the 183 million ton in 2007. To cope with the volume growth, 6 important infrastructural projects are in the pipeline: Deepening the river Scheldt, construction of the second access to the left bank, establishment of additional terminal capacity, closing of the ring-road around Antwerp as road infrastructure, and investing in railway infrastructure and inland navigation. We have the available capacity for the future.
An extra word on the terminal expansion project. The so called Saeftinghe Development Area, is a completely new area within the port of 1.070 ha (2500 acres) for maritime handling, logistics and industrial projects. More information can be found on our website http://www.portofantwerp.com/.
J: Nowadays the Economic Crisis has greatly affected the economy globally. What are your port’s actions?
Mr. Luc Arnouts: The APA has developed a strategy of staying attractive. It is based on the following principles referred as FIRST AID KIT: We make competitive port dues and if there is any increase will keep it below inflation level. We deepen the River Scheldt to the tidal independent draft of 13.10 m to faster turnaround of the vessels. We make both for import and export excellent tri-modal hinterland connections. We enhance social responsibility in cooperation with workforce and unions. We create high productivity also thanks to a flexible workforce with a “CAN DO” attitude that leads the result of the fastest possible dispatch of the vessels.  Together we will overcome this trough and ride the crests of the waves again in the foreseeable future.

J: Thank you for your participation in DIALOGUE of Shippingchina.com’s who has 200 thousand members and enjoys 2 million clicks per day. So what would you like to say to the members here?
Mr. Luc Arnouts: We strongly believe in the importance of strengthening the links between China and Belgium. Antwerp is really the gateway by excellence for cargo to and from Europe, and we hope to convince China of our strong points : nautical accessibility; high productivity; free capacity; hinterland connectivity and value adding logistic services.
We warmly welcome all your members for a visit to our port.

Journalist: Betty Chen