17 April 2024 (Lloyd's List) - THE port of Antwerp-Bruges recorded its highest container throughput since the first quarter of 2021 after a surprise uptick in volumes.
“After economic uncertainty and inflation led to a global slowdown in demand for container shipping in 2023, container throughput picked up again from February, with March even witnessing the best monthly throughput since March 2021,” the port said in a release on its first-quarter figures.
Container volumes rose 6% to 3.3m teu during the quarter, as Antwerp-Bruges market share in the Hamburg-Le Havre range rose to just shy of 30%.
“The fact that, as a world port, we are caught up in continuing challenges was once again highlighted in the last quarter,” said Antwerp-Bruges chief executive Jacques Vandermeiren.
“The Red Sea unrest obliged container shipping companies, for security reasons, to divert their routes via the Cape of Good Hope on east-west routes, resulting in disruptions to logistics chains and irregular arrivals of containerships.
“This meant that all parties involved had to adapt, but diverted routes soon became the ‘new normal’. The fact that we can once again achieve growth despite everything proves our resilience in unpredictable times.”
The result comes despite a weak economic outlook for the European economies Antwerp-Bruges serves.
The International Monetary Fund’s latest outlook for the global economy forecasts growth of 3.1% this year followed by 3.2% in 2025. But despite a slight improvement since its previous forecast, eurozone growth is set to be less than 1% this year and only 1.7% next year.
Nevertheless, Antwerp-Bruges said the fact that the quarterly figures show growth despite the weak economic climate was a confirmation of the port’s resilience.
“For sustainable growth, the port must be able to accommodate the very largest container vessels,” it said. “The required 16 m draught in this regard was recently achieved by the first container vessel.”
In other segments, throughput volumes of conventional general cargo also showed an upward trend again. Although throughput decreased by 7.8% compared with the same period last year, it grew by 6.9% compared with the last quarter of 2023.
Throughput of iron and steel remained unchanged, with incoming flows growing (+1.4%) and outgoing flows falling (-3.8%). Most other goods recorded a decline compared to the first quarter of 2023.
Ongoing congestion in the port’s ro-ro terminals led to a 6.9% decline in volumes, but there was a rise in unaccompanied non-containerised cargo, and declining UK volumes were offset by an increase in volumes from Ireland, the Iberian peninsula and Scandinavia.
