MSC transfer to Deurganck dock approved

The Antwerp Port Authority board of directors has given the go ahead for MSC to consolidate all its activities in the port of Antwerp in Deurganck dock, on the left bank of the Scheldt. The transfer is necessary in order to permit further expansion by MSC in Antwerp.

MSC announced at the end of 2013 that it wished to have a new location below the locks, not only because its present site in the Delwaide dock had reached saturation point but also because of the increasing size of the ships being introduced. Deurganck dock was the obvious choice, as it is already used by the other members of the P3 alliance of which MSC forms part and the alliance plans to make even greater use of it in future.

With a volume of 4.5m teu in 2013, MSC is the port of Antwerp’s biggest container customer. However, the company’s Home Terminal in the Delwaide dock was already at full capacity in 2010, so no further growth in Antwerp has been possible since 2011. Indeed, MSC was forced to divert a large part of its growth to other ports in the Hamburg-Le Havre range, so that the level of activity in Antwerp remained static.