Antwerp anticipates 178m tonnes for 2010

The increase is mainly due to container freight, which, once more, passed the 100m tonne mark setting a new record at 102.7m tonnes, an increase of 17.8%. Translated into teu, the figure was up by 16.1% to 8.4m teu.

Although Ro/ro traffic also increased by 14.8% to 3.6m tonnes, in comparison with 2008 its throughput was down by 16.9%, with imports of new cars struggling to get back to 2008 levels.

In other commodities, conventional/breakbulk experienced the greatest difficulty in recovering from the recession, increasing 6.3% to 11.1m tonnes, some 34.4% down on the 2008 level. Steel products, wood cellulose, paper and fruit all suffered heavily in 2009.