The port of Antwerp handled 93,822,976 tonnes of freight during the first six months of this year, the Port Authority press release said. This represents a drop of 2.1% compared with the same period last year, due mainly to the Belgian Refining Corporation (BRC) suspending its activities. The container volume expanded slightly during the past half year, demonstrating that the port of Antwerp is able to maintain its position in the difficult economic situation over the past few months. Ro/ro and dry bulk for their part managed to return good growth figures, of 16.2% and 5.0% respectively. Liquid bulk too has begun to recover in the past month, thanks to BRC restarting.
In terms of tonnage, the Antwerp container volume in the first quarter of this year grew by 0.8% to 53,481,408 tonnes. In the same period last year the volume was 53,067,419 tonnes. In terms of standard containers (twenty-foot equivalent units) the volume was 4,363,403 TEU. That is 0.4% less than in 2011, when 4,382,882 TEU was handled.
The volume of liquid and dry bulk decreased overall by 5.1%, to 32,555,938 tonnes. Liquid bulk was down by 9.2%, to 21,976,798 tonnes. The decline in imports of crude oil was particularly marked, falling by 57.6% to 1,049,649 tonnes due to the temporary closure of production at BRC. In the meantime volumes of oil derivatives and chemicals fell, respectively by 1.9% to 15,427,194 tonnes and by 9.1% to 5,249,085 tonnes. Dry bulk for its part experienced a rise of 5.0%, to 10,579,140 tonnes. In this category there were increases in the volume of coal (up 30.5% to 3,677,607 tonnes) and grain (up 7.1% to 538,422 tonnes), while contractions were suffered by fertilisers (down 14.1% to 2,132,093 tonnes) and ore (down 18.1% to 1,306,457 tonnes).
In the conventional/breakbulk field 5,375,642 tonnes of freight was handled, a decrease of 16.5% compared with the same period last year. The drop is mainly due to the lower volume of steel, reflecting the current economic climate. During the first half year 2012 a steel volume of 3,378,612 was handled, which is 23.4% less than the 4,410,803 tonnes for the corresponding period in 2011. For the rest there were mixed results for fruit (down 4.3% to 666,693 tonnes), paper and cellulose (up 19.2% to 426,073 tonnes), granite (down 26.3% to 111,395 tonnes) and non-ferrous metals (up 30.8% to 214,717 tonnes). The ro/ro volume for its part is up by 16.2% to 2,409,988 tonnes, with the number of cars handled growing by 17.2% to 617,453.
During the first six months of 2012 there were 7,361 calls by seagoing ships in the port of Antwerp, down 5.0% on the same period last year. The gross tonnage for its part suffered a slight contraction of 0.5%, to 157.9 million GT.
The annual study of the economic importance of Belgian ports, carried out by the National Bank of Belgium, shows that the port of Antwerp generated 9.8 billion euros of direct added value in 2010. This is 60% of the direct added value of all the Belgian ports put together, 9.5% of the GDP of Flanders and 5.4% of Belgian GDP. The port of Antwerp provided jobs for 145,000 people in 2010, making it an important engine of the Flemish and Belgian economy.
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