After two peak months with more than one million TEU each in April and May, the port of Antwerp closed the second quarter with a very strong month of June. The result: a record volume on a quarterly basis. Continued volume growth in container handling and increases in dry bulk more than compensated for the decline in other more market-sensitive areas such as liquid bulk and breakbulk - despite a slowdown in growth in Europe and uncertainty in the market. Increased volumes in transshipment continue to ensure an upturn in the Antwerp container business.

Container peaks in April and May

Antwerp achieved a new record volume of container traffic in the second quarter of 2019 - with May being the best month. The peak figures in April and May increased the handling volume in the first half of the year to 5.84 million TEU and the growth rate to 4.9 percent. This is due in particular to increased transshipment to and from all trading regions with the exception of South America. Transshipment in trade with the Far East even recorded double-digit growth of +11.7%.

Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO Port of Antwerp: "Container throughput continues to grow, which is good news for our leading role in the global logistics chain. However, the focus is still on achieving the targeted modal split. Ongoing activities are aimed at shifting more containers to rail and inland waterway."

Better results in May and June were positive news for breakbulk handling. After six months, handling volumes stabilized with a decline of 1.7% compared to the end of the first quarter. Conventional breakbulk volumes also recovered somewhat. At 4.89 million tons, only 3.2% less was handled than in the first six months of 2018, which is attributable to a slight improvement in iron and steel exports.

The ro/ro volume reached 2.72 million tons (+ 0.9 percent) in the first half of the year after a 3.2 percent increase in the first quarter. The volume of new vehicles handled fell by 7.9% in the second quarter and therefore by 6.3% overall in the first half of the year. This development is in line with the global trend of declining vehicle production. In contrast, the volume of used vehicles handled rose by 15.5% in the second quarter and thus by 10.1% overall in the first half of the year.

Peak values for dry bulk in the second quarter of 2019

The dry bulk volume more than made up for the 8.8% decline at the end of the first quarter and closed the first half of the year at 6.86 million tons, an increase of 8.7%. Although the handling figures for fertilizers (-8 percent), ore (-25.7 percent) and sand and gravel (-6.5 percent) were down, the figures for coal were four times higher than in the same period last year and scrap handling also rose by almost 10 percent. The dry bulk segment is traditionally characterized by high volatility - with a wide range of goods that differ greatly from one another.

Despite the relatively strong months of May and June, liquid bulk recorded a decline of 6.4% to 35.96 million tons in the first half of 2019, following a drop of 8.2% at the end of the first quarter. Increases were recorded for crude oil (+3.2%) and chemical products (+5.4%). However, the handling of oil derivatives did not recover significantly in the second quarter. After three months, the figure was down 11.9% and after six months it was still 10.9% below the previous year's level. The slowdown in economic growth and the sharp fluctuations in oil prices caused uncertainty among traders. Nevertheless, there are positive signs: the tank storage company Standic recently announced an investment of 200 million euros in a new tank storage facility for chemical products in the port of Antwerp.

At 7,200, the number of ocean-going vessels calling at Antwerp in the past six months was only 0.1 percent lower than in the same period last year. The gross tonnage of ships arriving at the port rose by 0.6 percent to 209,283,498 GT (gross tonnage).