Rotterdam, Antwerp ports see box traffic gains

Rotterdam, Antwerp ports see box traffic gains    The neighboring ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp both reported increases in their container traffic for 2003, with the Dutch port reaching a record volume of 7 million TEUs and the Belgian port exceeding the 5-million-TEU mark for the first time.
   Rotterdam increased its box traffic by 8 percent, from 6.5 million to 7 million TEUs.
   “We are the first non-Asian port to pass the 7 million TEU mark,” said Willem Scholten, chairman of the Rotterdam Port Management.
   Antwerp, Europe’s third-largest container port after Rotterdam and Hamburg, handled 5.45 million TEUs in 2003, 14 percent more than in 2002.
   Scholten said that investments are still being made in Rotterdam, including in the “second Maasvlakte” port complex.
   For the first time, 2003 saw a traffic of one million TEUs shipped between Rotterdam and a single foreign country (England) in one year. Container traffic between Rotterdam and Asia rose by 20 percent in 2003, with China in particular recording growth of 30 percent.
   The port of Rotterdam said that the number and frequency of feeder connections, primarily with England and the Baltic, are increasing.
   The port authority of Antwerp said that the port’s growth in container tonnage in the first nine months of 2003 has exceeded those of French, Dutch and German ports. Comparative figures for the full year are not yet available.
   Rotterdam’s container traffic amounted to 71 million tons in 2003.
   Roll-on/roll-off traffic at the port of Rotterdam increased by 11 percent in 2003, to about 10 million tons.
   Other general cargo traffic at Rotterdam amounted to 8.2 million tons, 13 percent more than in 2002.
   At the port of Antwerp, non-containerized general cargo stayed static in 2003, whereas ro-ro volume was up by 3.3 percent.