Port of Antwerp cargo volume up 5.5% to 156,515,552 tonnes in the first nine months of 2015

The port of Antwerp handled 156,515,552 tonnes of freight in the first nine months of this year, up 5.5% on the same period last year. The steady growth in the volume of container freight (up 8.0% in TEU, 5.4% in tonnage) and of liquid bulk (up 7.9%) means that the port of Antwerp is poised to close the year with a total volume of 200 million tonnes.
Containers and breakbulk
Expressed in TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units, i.e. standard containers) the container volume rose during the first nine months by 8.0% or 7,265,577 TEU. In terms of tonnage the volume came to 85,478,483 tonnes (up 5.4%). Antwerp is winning market share on all trading routes. Even in the Asian trade the port managed to close the first nine months of 2015 with growth of 6.2%, which is all the more remarkable in view of the declining volumes on the trading routes to and from the Far East.
The ro/ro volume for its part was up by 2.5% to 3,463,315 tonnes, although the number of cars handled was down by 9.7% to 825,312 vehicles. The conventional breakbulk volume in the meantime was down by 1.8%, with 7,301,018 tonnes handled by the end of the first nine months. The volume of iron and steel was up slightly by 2.4% to 4,983,794 tonnes. The decline in the breakbulk segment is due to the increasing containerisation of fruit and the consequent fall in conventional handling.
Liquid bulk
The liquid bulk volume rose during the past nine months by 7.9% to 49,791,570 tonnes. The volume of oil derivatives performed well (up 4.6% to 35,346,491 tonnes), but the strongest growth during the first three quarters was achieved by chemicals, up 23.7% to 10,669,511 tonnes.
Dry bulk
By the end of the first nine months the dry bulk volume had risen by 2.4% to 10,481,166 tonnes. Sand and gravel did very well, up 27.7% to 1,265,949 tonnes, while the coal volume too made further progress after a weak second quarter, managing growth of 12.8% to 1,326,702 tonnes.
Seagoing ships
A total of 10,786 seagoing ships called at the port of Antwerp during the past nine months, 2.5% more than in the same period last year. The gross tonnage for its part rose by 7.7% to 271,015,177 GT.
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