In Belgium, the Port of Antwerp is forecast to have handled 183.8m tonnes of freight last year, representing a drop of 1.8 per cent compared with 2011 when final volumes hit 187.2m tonnes.
'All things considered, these figures are a mild reflection of the state of the economy and of the shipping industry,' the Antwerp Port Authority stated.
Container freight volume in Antwerp remained at around the same level, at 8.6m TEU – a drop of 0.4 per cent – while, expressed in tonnes, the fall amounted to 1.1 per cent, down to 104m tonnes.
The number of seagoing ships calling at the port in 2012 came to 14,593, a drop of 4.2 per cent compared with 2011, although the number of calls by ships of 10,000 TEU or more was up from 141 in 2011 to 165 – 'demonstrating that the port of Antwerp is very definitely reaping the benefits of the deepening of the Scheldt,' the Port Authority noted.
