Antwerp port awards concessions to P&O Ports and HNN

Antwerp port awards concessions to P&O Ports and HNN    The Antwerp Port Authority has selected P&O Ports, the port arm of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., and HNN, the Belgian subsidiary of Singapore’s PSA Corp., to operate terminals at the Belgian port’s new container terminal complex, called Deurganckdok.
   The eastern side of the Deurganckdok will be made available to the P&O Ports consortium and the western side of the complex will be available for HNN.
   “In the concession agreements stringent demands will be made regarding the use of space by the concessionaires,” the port authority said. “Taking into account the real use, certain parts of the terminal could be retracted and reallocated due to under-utilization.”
   The port authority said that, if Maersk complies with certain conditions for further volume growth, then the Danish company will be able to have an exclusive terminal site at Deurganckdok from 2007.
   The port of Antwerp’s container traffic grew by 15.9 percent during the first eight months of this year.