WASHINGTON: The container turnover of the port of Antwerp grew by 2% yoy in the first quarter of 2017 and amounted to 29.75 million tonnes. The traffic of containers through the terminals of the port grew by 0.7% yoy to 2.48 million TEU. The growth in container turnover of Antwerp, which has recently outpaced other European ports, seems to have slowed down, as in the first three months of 2016 the port handled 2.46 million TEU, which was 4.6% more than an year earlier and during the entire 2016 the growth amounted to 4.2%. Moreover, the gap between the Belgian port and the Europe’s largest container port rose, as for the first first quarter of 2017 the container turnover of port of Rotterdam rose by 8.8% yoy, primarily due to 23% growth in volumes on feeder lines.
The throughput of the port Antwerp in the first quarter amounted to 54.3 million tons, which is 1.5% more than in the same period last year. Over the past quarter, ro-ro cargo turnover through Antwerp amounted to 1.22 million tons (+5.3% yoy), general cargo to 2.58 million tons (+8.3%), liquid cargo amounted to 17.6 million Tons (-1.2%) and the bulk cargo reached 3.1 million tons (+6.7%). For the first quarter of 2017 the number of ship calls to the port of Antwerp declined by 0.8% yoy to 3,505 vessels. On the other hand, the gross tonnage of these vessels was 99.7 million tons, which is 3.3% year-on-year more. Port of Antwerp in Belgium is a port in the heart of Europe accessible to capesize ships. It is European second-largest seaport, after Rotterdam. Antwerp stands at the upper end of the tidal estuary of the Scheldt. Port of Antwerp’s inland location provides a more central location in Europe than the majority of North Sea ports.
