Antwerp raises fees after strong volumes

   The Port of Antwerp in Belgium plans to raise wharfage fees 2 percent this year, marking the first time in three years that dues for port users have increased, the port authority announced last month.
   The Port of Le Havre in France recently took the opposite position and said it would maintain its freeze on harbor dues.
   Antwerp port officials lowered certain fees in 2010 and 2011 to help carriers cope with the sharp drop in freight volumes resulting from the global recession. 
   The port also said it will maintain the reduced rates introduced in 2010 for breakbulk carriers loading or unloading in the port.
   The additional revenue will be used for landside and seaside infrastructure upgrades, as well as marketing efforts to attract more customers, the port said.
   “When it comes to setting the level of dues, the Port Authority remains a very stable partner for port users,” CEO Eddy Bruyninckx said in a statement. “Offering attractive yet realistic port dues remains the basis of our policy. The rates policy for the port is characterized by continuity, not by day-to-day considerations with sudden increases or decreases.”
   In 2012 the port will continue to offer a discount of 10 percent to container ships with an Environmental Ship Index (ESI) of 31 points or more.
   The ESI is a new system developed by the International Association of Harbors and Ports to rank the environmental performance of vessels and enable ports to offer incentives to vessels that pollute the least within their category.
   The Port of Antwerp said it will extend the ESI program this year to barges. Barge vessels with certain certified engines will be offered a reduction of 7 percent on port dues for calls in 2012. 
   Meanwhile, the port reported that it handled record tonnage for containers and liquid bulk cargo in 2011. Total tonnage increased 4.6 percent to 186.4 million tons, with container volume up 2.2 percent to 104.8 million tons and liquid bulk at 46.1 million tons.
   At the box unit level, container traffic increased 2 percent to 8.64 million TEUs. The corresponding increase in tonnage suggests that the volume consisted mostly of loaded containers and that empties for return to overseas producers probably transited through other ports in Europe.
   Roll-on/roll-off volume at the Port of Antwerp climbed 13 percent to 4.2 million tons. In unit terms, the number of cars handled increased 14.7 percent to 1.06 million.
   The port also experienced a 14.8 percent increase in breakbulk freight to 12.8 million tons, maintaining its status as the largest breakbulk port in Europe. New flexibility in government labor regulations is expected to make breakbulk operations more competitive in the future, the port said.
   Bulk freight volume in 2011, which includes liquid bulk, went up 6.3 percent to 64.6 million tons. The port attributed the growth in part to redevelopment of several breakbulk facilities into tank storage farms.
   The port said dry bulk volume fell 6.5 percent to 18.5 million tons, due largely to lower imports of ore and fertilizers.
   The total number of ship calls last year increased 3 percent to 15,230.