Declining freight volume at Port of Antwerp
Port of Antwerp sees less signs for recovery During the first nine months of this year the freight volume handled at Port of Antwerp dropped by 19 per cent to 117 million tons compared to last year. The volume of bulk freight amounted to 42 million tons and is 16.2 per cent below last year’s level. Also container volume dropped 18.4 per cent to 5.4 million TEU in the period January-September 2009. Moreover, 9 million tons of conventional/breakbulk was loaded and unloaded – 37.8 per cent less than in the previous year. The ro/ro sector experienced a contraction of 29.9 per cent to 2.4 million tons. The number of cars being loaded or unloaded fell by 24.5 per cent to 546,479 units. The number of seagoing ships calling at the port was down by 16.4 per cent to 10,459 units. “Volumes seem to have stabilised in the past few months. In the third quarter the amount of shipping freight has remained the same, and we suspect that this trend will continue for the remainder of the year” explains CEO Eddy Bruyninckx. At the moment there were not enough signs for an economic revival in the last quarter of 2009, according to his statement. Quelle: Österreichische Verkehrszeitung |