Container freight recovered

In terms of tonnage, the Antwerp container volume in the first quarter of this year grew by 20.1% to 24,333,081 tonnes. In the same period last year the volume was 20,255,766 tonnes. In terms of standard containers (twenty-foot equivalent units) the volume was 2,013,236 TEU. That is 15.9% more than in 2009, when 1,736,648 TEU was handled. In fact the quarterly container volume approaches the 2,075,050 TEU handled in 2008, the best result in the past ten years. As such Antwerp once more confirms its position as the second-largest container port in Europe, just as it ended 2009.

In the conventional/breakbulk field 2,620,107 tonnes was loaded and unloaded,
making this the only category that is down on 2009. The volume of steel products is
21.1% lower, while transhipments of fruit, wood cellulose and paper remain at a
stable level. The ro/ro volume on the other hand is up by 1.8% to 807,157 tonnes, with the number of cars handled growing by 22.7% to 197,472.
The volume of liquid and dry bulk rose overall by 7.8%, to 14,293,333 tonnes. Liquid bulk was up by 3.8% to 9,655,602 bringing it back to the level of 2008. In particular there was a rise of 47.1% in the volume of crude oil. Chemicals too followed the growth trend (up by 2.4 million tonnes), thanks in part to the tank storage capacity available in Antwerp. Dry bulk for its part experienced a rise of 17.4%. The volume of fertilisers actually doubled, to 1.2 million tonnes, while there were also considerable increases in the amounts of sand and gravel (up 33.1%), scrap iron (up 20.6%) and grain (up 10.7%). Only coal and ore were down, by 15%.

During the first quarter of 2010, a total of 3,499 seagoing ships called at Antwerp, 2.7% more than in the same period last year. The gross register tonnage was up by 1%, to 66.8 million.