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Port of Antwerp volume up 4pc in first 3 quarters to 7.55 million TEU

THE Port of Antwerp's container throughput rose four per cent year on year in the first three quarters to total 7,556,386 TEU, expanding the port's market share against rival on the Hamburg-Le Havre range.

Over this period, it handled 161,671,573 tonnes of freight, representing an increase of 3.3 per cent year on year.

A statement from port authorities said container volume increased 3.7 per cent during the first nine months to stand at 88,639,126 tonnes.

In the first nine months of the year, ro-ro volume fell by 1.9 per cent, finishing at 3,398,867 tonnes. The volume of conventional breakbulk fell by 0.5 per cent to 7,266,951 tonnes. Steel volume, however, grew by 15.3 per cent to 5,748,492 tonnes.

The volume of dry bulk continued to decline - after nine months the figure stood at 9,262,710 tonnes, representing a year-on-year fall of 11.6 per cent. More specifically, negative performances were recorded for ores (down 16.9 per cent to 1,477,898 tonnes), fertilisers (down 3.7 per cent to 2,634,153 tonnes), and sand and gravel (down 20.1 per cent to 1,011,145 tonnes).

The number of seagoing ships visiting the port rose by one per cent, with the number of calls totalling 10,894 as of October 1. Not only was there an increase in the number of ships, there was continuing strong growth in gross tonnage. This rose by 11.3 per cent to 301,661,005 GT, demonstrating the trend towards deploying ever-larger vessels.