Port of Antwerp experiences slight decline
in freight volumes

17 Oct 2012

The port of Antwerp handled 138,905,003 tonnes of freight during the first nine months of this year. This represents a drop of 2.2% compared with the same period last year, due mainly to the temporary shutdown of activities by Belgian Refining Corporation (BRC). The container volume for its part was down very slightly, by 0.6%. On the other hand ro/ro and dry bulk continued their positive trend of the past nine months, rising by 18.6% and 1.7% respectively.

In terms of tonnage, the Antwerp container volume in the first three quarters decreased by 0.6% to 78,722,648 tonnes. In the same period last year the volume was 79,206,404 tonnes. In terms of standard containers (twenty-foot equivalent units) the volume was 6,517,956 TEU. That is 0.5% less than the first nine months of 2011, when 6,548,779 TEU was handled.

The volume of liquid and dry bulk decreased overall by 3.4%, to 48,407,751 tonnes. Liquid bulk was down by 5.4%, to 33,702,020 tonnes. The decline in imports of crude oil was particularly marked, falling by 41.3% to 2,027,695 tonnes due to the temporary closure of production at BRC. Dry bulk for its part experienced a rise of 1.7%, to 14,705,731 tonnes. In this category there was an increase in the volume of coal (up 14.6% to 4,576,011 tonnes), while contractions were suffered by fertilisers (down 9.0% to 3,159,597 tonnes) and ore (down 4.4% to 2,087,193 tonnes).

In the conventional/breakbulk field 8,176,995 tonnes of freight was handled, a decrease of 15.9% compared with the same period last year. The drop is mainly due to the lower volume of steel, reflecting the current economic climate. During the first three quarters of 2012 a steel volume of 5,117,453 was handled, which is 21.6% less than the 6,528,591 tonnes for the corresponding period in 2011. For the rest there were mixed results for fruit (down 2.9% to 979,161 tonnes), paper and cellulose (up 19.4% to 666,005 tonnes), granite (down 27.0% to 177,050 tonnes) and non-ferrous metals (up 51.7% to 390,129 tonnes). The ro/ro volume for its part is up by 18.6% to 3,597,609 tonnes, with the number of cars handled growing by 18.9% to 918,995.

During the first nine months of 2012 there were 11,039 calls by seagoing ships in the port of Antwerp, down 5.1% on the same period last year. The gross tonnage for its part suffered a slight contraction of 0.1%, to 238.8 million GT.

The number of freight handling jobs expanded in the first nine months of 2012 by 0.47%, to 1,192,137. By way of comparison, the number at the end of the same period in 201s1 was 1,186,614.

Antwerp Port Authority, press release