Antwerp handled 157m tonnes in 2009

The number of ships calling at the port fell by 15.1%, to 13,921.

Nearly all commodities recoded decreases in volume, with containers falling by 15.6% to 7.3m teu, whilst ro/ro volumes were down 27.6% at 3.2m tonnes.

Conventional break-bulk dropped 38.3% to 10.4m tonnes, mainly due to the sharp decreases in the volumes of steel, wood cellulose and paper products. Bulks were down by 14.6% overall, to just under 57m tonnes, with most of the decrease attributable dry bulk, which fell by 36.4%.