Port of Antwerp’s tonnage rises 4.4% in 2017

The Belgian port handled 4.4 percent more tonnage in 2017 from a year prior, with almost all sectors posting an increase in throughput.    The Port of Antwerp handled 223.6 million metric tons of freight in 2017, a 4.4 percent increase and a record freight volume for the fifth straight year in a row.
   Largely all sectors experienced increases, with container tonnage increasing 4.3 percent from 2016 to 123 million metric tons, and container volumes rising 4.1 percent to 10.5 million TEUs.
   The last quarter of 2017 saw growth of 7 percent in terms of TEU volumes compared with the same period a year prior.
   Roll-on/roll-off cargo volumes totaled 5.1 million metric tons for 2017, up 10.5 percent from 2016, while the number of cars handled rose 4 percent to 1.2 million units.
   Liquid bulk, such as oil derivatives, grew by 5.7 percent from 2016, while conventional breakbulk, such as steel, increased 4.8 percent to 10.3 million metric tons.
   Dry bulk, such as coal and ores, finished the year with a drop of 3.7 percent to 12.2 million metric tons.
   “Finishing the year with such strong growth figures gives us confidence for the future,” Antwerp Port Authority CEO Jacques Vandermeiren said. “The port companies too remain firmly convinced of the advantages of Antwerp and the strengths that it has to offer, witness the many investments that we were able to welcome in 2017. In 2018 we seek to build further on the momentum of the previous year. This means that we will take the entire world as the scale for our decisions, with maximum facilitation for our customers as the basis.”
   A total of 14,223 seagoing ships called Antwerp in 2017, a decrease of 1.7 percent compared with the previous year. However, overall gross tonnage of these ships rose 1.4 percent to 406.7 million gross tons.
   “The favorable economic climate in combination with the big alliances that continue to opt resolutely for Antwerp means that container handling in Antwerp currently has the wind behind it,” Vandermeiren said. “In the coming years too we expect further growth in the container volume, and so in 2018 we will continue to work hard on providing additional container handling capacity in Antwerp.”