Strikes at Belgian ports halted as backlogs continue to grow

17 Feb 2012 - Ports, Shipping

• Operators expected to take 24 hours to clear backlog of around 60 vessels

Belgian port workers have today ended their strikes over pension reforms that brought much of the Port of Antwerp, Europe’s third largest port, to a standstill.

Operators are now busy trying to clear the backlog of around sixty vessels waiting in and outside the port.

“It will take at least 24 hours to clear this backlog,” an Antwerp port spokeswoman said.

The Port of Ghent, which has experienced similar problems, has said that it will need at least 48 hours to clear its backlog of 29 ships, while Zeebrugge Port expects to be clear by this evening.

Belgian pilots went on strike on Monday to demand that their profession was made exempt from government plans of increasing the retirement age from 60 to 62.

The industrial action at Antwerp Port is estimated to have cost the port more than €1 million an hour, according to the Port of Antwerp Authority.

As PTI reported yesterday, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) is currently reconsidering its operations in Antwerp after growing increasingly concerned of the impact that the strikes were having on its business.

“The damage that the action of the pilots has caused us is making us rethink our position in Antwerp. MSC does not understand this action by the pilots ... and will reconsider its investment policy towards [the region of] Flanders,” said MSC.