In Port News 30/04/2015
With a Turkish import/export volume of nearly 11 million tonnes of freight annually, Antwerp has a market share of 55% among the other ports in the Hamburg – Le Havre range. Turkey is the fourth-largest trading partner of the port of Antwerp, sending mainly containers (88%) followed by breakbulk, ro/ro and chemicals. In the other direction, exports to Turkey are largely containers (77%) and breakbulk. To reinforce this already strong trade position, the port of Antwerp regularly organises commercial meetings and activities with players in the Turkish ports sector, such as the Port Day on 28 April this year. The Port Day is part of the Turkey-Azerbaijan Trade Mission organised by Voka Chamber of Commerce and Industry Antwerp-Waasland in cooperation with the Belgian Federation of Chambers of Commerce.
Excellent range of services
The port of Antwerp offers excellent facilities for handling all types of freight and all modes of transport. Furthermore no other port is so centrally located in Europe, making transport to the end consumers easier, more efficient and thus less expensive, with multiple connections between foreland and hinterland. In the case of Turkey there are very good connections, with nine weekly container shuttles by rail and seven shortsea calls per week for containers and 14 per month for breakbulk. And for road transport there is an extensive motorway network.
In the meantime, large investments are being made in further developing the port’s facilities, both by government and by private investors. In March 2016 Antwerp will open a new sea lock with a length of 500 m, a width of 68 m and a depth of 17.80 below the local datum point, making it the largest lock in the world, easily able to handle the largest ships afloat. At the same time work is going ahead on a new commercial zone of more than 1,000 hectares on the left bank of the Scheldt, offering space for maritime, industrial and logistics activities. The first ships will be able to moor there in 2021 at a new tidal lock now being built to handle the expected growth in the container volume.
Last year Antwerp handled just under 9 million TEU. Whether or not it will pass the 9 million TEU mark this year remains to be seen, but the figures for the first quarter already point in this direction, with the number of TEU handled up by 9.5% compared with the same period last year. On the logistics side heavy investments are being made by private players, resulting in additional terminal capacity and state-ofthe-art facilities for handling all sorts of bulk freight.
“Supply chain” approach
The port of Antwerp not only handles large volumes of freight, it also works hard to build systems to ensure that the goods reach their final destination as quickly and efficiently as possible. For example, the Port of Antwerp Connectivity Platform offers a detailed, transparent overview of all maritime, container barge and rail links between Antwerp and the European hinterland. The Antwerp Port Community System for its part ensures fast, reliable exchange of electronic data between the different partners in the logistics chain, including Customs declarations, dangerous goods declarations and nautical information. Within the Port Authority, Port of Antwerp Intermodal
Solutions identifies missing links in the container barge and rail network surrounding the port, so that these can eventually be eliminated and the port’s connections with the hinterland further improved. But the underlying aim of all these initiatives is the same, namely to further develop the port of Antwerp as the most important link in the logistics chains that pass through the port.
Port Day
The port of Antwerp likes to keep in touch with developments among its national and international customers, and so the Port Authority regularly organises trade missions, seminars and Port Days all over the world. During the Port Day in Istanbul the Port Authority in collaboration with the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and the Turkish forwarders’ association UTIKAD invites forwarders, shippers and ship’s agents in the Istanbul region to attend. Various speakers will focus on among other things the way in which the port faces the present-day challenges in world trade and shipping, as well as the advantages which the port offers for customers in search of a costand time-efficient solution for their goods flows.
