In light of the coronavirus situation and with several European countries reported their first cases, Port of Antwerp expressed its optimism. In fact, the port said that “there is no reason to panic” as it will further continue its normal operations.
For the records, Port of Antwerp has no any coronavirus cases reported yet, while it is constantly following the recommendations and safety measures of the WHO, EU, Federal Department of Health (Saniport) and Federal Department of Mobility.
In line with the standard procedures, within ships’ arrival, all the vessels must present a Maritime Declaration of Health (MDH), which the master must submit 24 hours before entering the port, showing whether there are any actual or suspected cases of illness onboard and a list of the last ten ports.
After the MDH, the ship is then checked by Saniport. In case that there are any suspicions, the vessel may be forced to remain off the coast and a doctor might get onboard. As a result, the ship will not get a pilot and will not be allowed to enter port.
Despite the fact that coronavirus has brought several impacts upon the shipping industry and the trade market, Port of Antwerp has not experience any economic impacts so far.
Although, based on preliminary forecasts it is expected that a month of traffic to and from China will be lost, meaning that 115.000 containers, or 7% container traffic to and from China. Concluding, China is the second is the second trading partner for port of Antwerp following the US.
