The Port of Antwerp has released its figures for 2016 and it shows that the Belgian port has managed to have a record breaking year.
2016 saw the port’s container volume rising above the 10 million TEU mark for the first time in its history. At 4.1% the growth in container volume is even more pronounced and after 12 months the figure stood at an impressive 117,909,533 tonnes of containerised freight.
The Port of Antwerp also handled a total freight volume of 214,057,529 tonnes in 2016, up 2.7% on the previous year. However there were also negative figures in 2016, with conventional breakbulk down by 2.0% and dry bulk down 9.1%.
The container segment experienced strong growth both in tonnes and in the number of containers. In terms of TEU the number of containers handled last year rose by 4.0%, while in terms of tonnage the figure was slightly higher at 4.1%. The fact that the growth was 0.1% lower than at the end of the previous year was due to the thick mist that blanketed the port during the last days of December and caused delays for some large container carriers.
The volume of ro/ro cargo for its part was down by 1.8% to 4,568,874 tonnes, with the number of cars handled falling by 2.8% to 1,189,563. Conventional breakbulk experienced a similar drop, down 2.0% to 9,803,718 tonnes at the end of 2016.
The liquid bulk volume expanded during the past 12 months by 3.8% to 69,224,501 tonnes. Oil derivatives were up by as much as 7.1%, to 51,310,284 tonnes. In the meantime there was further grown in the amount of chemicals, up 1.1% to 13,592,806 tonnes. However imports and exports of crude oil fell over the course of the year, finishing down 17.4% at 3,977,722 tonnes.
In the dry bulk volume sector there was a fall of 9.1% to 12,550,903 tonnes. The volume of coal handled during the past 12 months came to 1,042,383 tonnes, which was 34.2% less than the previous year.
A total of 14,473 seagoing ships called at the port of Antwerp in the course of 2016, 0.4% more in comparison with the previous year.
Overall, the definitive figure for growth at the port in the year of 2016 was clocked at 2.7%.
PTI recently reported the Port of Antwerp’s hiring of new CEO Jacques Vandermeiren, replacing Eddy Bruyninckx, who was at the port for 25 years.
The closing of 2016 also saw the Port of Antwerp sign a Memorandum of Understanding to boost trade with South Korea.
