The port of Antwerp reported a very good first quarter with a freight volume of 58,328,678 tonnes, an increase of 7.1% from the same period last year. The main driver of the increase is the container freight which had a growth of 9.5% compared with the first three months of 2017.
Containers
The container volume rose by 9.5% to 32,580,600 tonnes, or 2,744,226 TEU (up 10.7%). In fact the month of March alone set a new record for container volume with 980,000 TEU.
There was growth on all sailing routes, both for imports and for exports. The progress made by European container freight was the most notable, expanding by 14.5%. Container trade with North America for its part increased by 14.7%. On Asian routes there was growth of 7%.
Breakbulk
The Ro-Ro volume rose by 6.0% to 1,300,086 tonnes, with the number of cars handled rising by 2.3% to 323,901 units.
Conventional breakbulk fell by 3.1% to 2,512,276 tonnes. While steel expanded by 1.5%, despite imports suffering a large drop of 9.9%, imports from China were down, with imports of Indian steel in decline as well. Exports of steel products reported growth of 19.7%, and there was a strong revival in steel exports to the US.
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Liquid bulk experienced an increase of 4.6%, to 18,552,332 tonnes. But, the strongest growth was noted by chemicals (6.8%), while oil derivatives as also performed well once more (up 4.6%).
Dry bulk
Dry bulk grew by 7.4%. This was mainly thanks to the larger imports of coal, fertilisers and sand & gravel, along with the higher volume of scrap metal exports.
Seagoing ships
3,531 seagoing ships called at Antwerp during the first quarter, an increase of 0.7%. The gross tonnage for its part increased by 2.0% to 101,728,371 GT.
Global political and economic context
The impact of Brexit on UK volumes so far remains limited, as the first quarter closed with growth of 4%. However, the Port Authority is watching the situation very closely.
