Box volumes drive Antwerp growth in cargo traffic.

(From Lloyds List)

Byline: New Deurganck dock handles 810,000 teu, writes Helen Hill in Amsterdam

THE port of Antwerp has seen container volumes grow at twice the rate of its cargo overall, with the hub handling 7m teu last year.

According to its final traffic figures the port experienced a cargo throughput of 167.4m tonnes, an increase of 4.6% compared with the 160m tonnes of 2005.

Container volume climbed 8.2% in teu on the back of robust growth in the container trade with other European countries and in North America, as well as imports from southeast Asia.

The new Deurganck dock handled a volume of 810,000 teu and the Port of Antwerp Authority was quick to point out that new handling facilities in Flanders had 'never achieved such a high degree of utilisation in their first year of operation'.

Conventional and breakbulk cargo also came in with a positive final result as volumes increased 2.8% to 18.3m tonnes compared with 17.8m tonnes in the previous year.