Euroports expands, upgrades Antwerp sugar shipping terminal

The improvements include new truck-unloading pits and a railcar-unloading station, which have been designed to ensure that sugar is handled in accordance with safety and quality requirements.    Netherlands-based port terminal operator Euroports has finished the renovation of its dedicated sugar terminal in Antwerp, Belgium, just in time for the first delivery trains of the 2017-2018 sugar season, which began last week, the company said in a Sept. 21 statement.
   The company has expanded the terminal and redesigned parts of the facility. The improvements, Euroports said, include new truck-unloading pits and a railcar-unloading station, which have been designed to ensure that sugar is handled in accordance with safety and quality requirements.
   Enhancements also include what Euroports says is state-of-the-art incremental handling equipment; new screening, metal-detection and filtration features for equipment to help ensure the quality of sugar as it moves through the terminal; and employment of advanced technology and procedures to help ensure that best practices are deployed throughout the terminal.
   New truck-unloading pits and a railcar-unloading station have increase the terminal’s outbound capacity and doubled the inbound capacity, according to Euroports. Also, the capacity of the container-bagging machinery has doubled, and the overall throughput capacity of the terminal is now 635,000 metric tons a year, making it one of the largest facilities of its kind in Europe.
   The facility also has an accredited laboratory for quality-control testing now, as well as information technology systems that can, among other things, track products.
   Strong industry demand led to the upgrades, Euroports Group CEO Charles Menkhorst explained, while indicating that the changes for the facility aren’t quite over yet.
   “Euroports will be making further investments in its Antwerp sugar terminal, thereby increasing its total capacity by another 20 percent for the 2018-2019 sugar season,” Menkhorst revealed.