EUR 250 million investment in North Sea Port

Alpha Terminals invests in a new terminal for liquid bulk in North Sea Port, the 60 kilometres long cross-border port area stretching from Vlissingen in the Netherlands to Ghent in Belgium. The tank terminal will have a storage capacity of 500,000 m³ in 34 tanks. It will be possible to store various kinds of liquid bulk products in the tanks ranging from chemicals and oils to oil products and future generation sources of energy such as ammonia.

The terminal will be good for an extra supply of 5 to 7 million tonnes of liquid bulk per year. Next to the facility a jetty is planned for the loading and unloading of various seagoing and inland vessels at the same time. The terminal will be constructed at the mouth of the Sloehaven. The industrial site has a surface area of over 8 hectares.

In 2018 the necessary permits will be applied for. It is expected that by 2019 the construction works will be able to start and they will supposedly take two years. In 2020, the terminal could then be operational. The investment is estimated at EUR 250 million euros and will be good for some 60 direct jobs. In view of the realization of the terminal, Alpha Terminals and North Sea Port signed a cooperation agreement in December 2017.

The Swiss company PSB Alpha is a traders and investors group that invests in energy-related projects world-wide and has set up Alpha Terminals for the operation of a tank terminal in the Netherlands. It is the first time that this Swiss group is active in the port.

Moreover, with this increase in its traffics, North Sea Port is improving its already strong position in the liquid bulk sector. At this moment, liquid bulk takes up one third of the port’s seaborne cargo traffic.

The Vlissingen port area is ideally located for a liquid bulk terminal. It belongs to the deepest accessible ports of Europe and it can accommodate large deep-lying vessels there. The port area has direct access to the North Sea and vessels can smoothly moor and unmoor there without delays. Moreover, North Sea Port links up with the European inland navigation network via the Western Scheldt and the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal.

As a specialist in bulk and general cargo, North Sea Port is the 60 kilometres long cross-border port area from Vlissingen in the Netherlands till Ghent in Belgium. The port is located at the crossroads of the European main roads and is also linked with the whole of Europe by rail and inland navigation. Since December 8, 2017, North Sea Port has been the merger port of Zeeland Seaports (Vlissingen and Terneuzen) and the port of Ghent.

www.northseaport.be; www.psba.ch