Antwerp records growth in container throughput

Container cargo once again showed the strongest growth, with volumes for the period growing by more than 8%. From January to September, the Belgian port handled 60.3m tonnes of container cargo, an increase of 8.1% year-on-year. In terms of teu, volumes were 8.9% higher at 5.27m teu. Container trade with the rest of Europe expanded by 15%, with North America by 10% and with the Far East by 6%.

Volumes of conventional/breakbulk cargo at Antwerp fell slightly, by 1.3% to 14.4m tonnes, though volumes for August and September were higher than in the corresponding period of 2005. Bulk traffic was virtually unchanged at 47.7m tonnes (0.2% down). Ro/ro traffic showed growth of 5.3% over the previous year.