The Antwerp Port Authority participates in the Flanders Port Area mission to Brasil and Chile from 12 to 19 November, led by Flemish minister for Mobility, Public Works, the Vlaamse Rand, Tourism and Animal Welfare Ben Weyts. The mission will focus on economic and trade relations between Brazil and Belgium and the Flemish ports. The programme includes an APEC-seminar and port seminars, in which the Port of Antwerp, the second port of Europe, and the other Flemish ports will present their strengths and opportunities to local businesspeople.
The mission kicked off on Thursday 12 November with the official opening by minister Weyts of an APEC seminar on Port Logistics Strategy as pillar for trade and business development in Sao Paolo for Brazilian importers, exporters, customs agents and logistics service providers. APEC-Antwerp/Flanders Port Training Center, a subsidiary of the Antwerp Port Authority, has played an important role in transferring the extensive know-how in all aspects of port activities from Flanders to the rest of the world ever since 1977.
APEC has been training +14000 maritime and logistics professionals from 150 countries on a variety of port management topics, among which 475 Brazilians. Since several years now, APEC also offers seminars in Brazil. In 2013, APEC signed an agreement with the Brazilian Ministry of Ports (SEP, Secretaria Especial de Portos da Presidência da República) for the provision of customised training packages for and a train-the-trainer course for Brazilian port professionals in 2014-15. APEC both trains white and blue collars and recently also expanded its training offer to private maritime, logistics and manufacturing companies in Brazil. Brazil is the port of Antwerp’s 6th most important trade partner with more than 6 mio tonnes of maritime cargo being exchanged between Brazil and Antwerp in 2014. Major import products are agricultural products and stimulants, kaolin and iron and steel. Cargo leaving Antwerp consists mainly of frozen vegetables, pharma, chemicals, fertilisers, feed, foods and drinks and car parts.
On the other hand, the Port of Antwerp is European market leader for containers shipped between the northwestern European ports and Brazil and for breakbulk from Europe to Brazil. The Port of Antwerp is present in 4 out of the 5 weekly container services connecting the northwestern European ports with Brazil, including a first port of call service to Bahia, and offers regular breakbulk sailings to several Brazilian ports. On Wednesday 18 November, Eddy Bruyninckx, ceo Port of Antwerp speaks at the Agro-Logistics seminar in Chile. The port of Antwerp is i.e. a major gateway for perishable cargoes to/from Europe and the largest conventional fruit port worldwide (unloading). In 2014, the specialized reefer vessels accounted for 1,7 Mio tonnes of reefercargo, primarily inbound fruits. Containerised reefers accounted for more than 6,1 Mio tonnes, or well over 500.000 full operational teu.