New record in container traffic
Despite a year dominated by the coronavirus crisis with some difficult months and blank sailings, container throughput has increased again since July. As a result, the 12 million TEU mark was exceeded for the first time in 2020, which corresponds to growth of 1.3% compared to 2019. Thanks to this record in the container segment, the port performed better than most other ports in the Hamburg-Le Havre range in 2020.

Breakbulk segment suffers from trade tensions and coronavirus crisis
Both coronavirus and increasing protectionism due to global trade tensions had a significant negative impact on breakbulk goods flows in 2020, resulting in a 16% decline in total throughput compared to 2019. Steel, the main commodity group within this segment, felt the effects of this in particular. The automotive sector also suffered from the coronavirus crisis. Overall, RoRo throughput fell by 9.4%. Compared to the same period of the previous year, handling of new vehicles fell by 21.5% in 2020, while handling of used vehicles fell by 22.5%.

Lower demand for liquid and dry bulk
While coal handling still grew in the first quarter, it then came to a standstill. Fertilizers, ores, sand and gravel also lost ground in 2020, while scrap was just able to maintain its level. Overall, this led to a 17% decline in dry bulk handling, which is due to the growing supply of renewable energies and lower demand for coal and ores from the steel sector.

Liquid bulk fell by 4.2% overall. Crude oil throughput fell by 60% due to the reduction in refinery activities. By contrast, the handling of oil derivatives recovered to a growth rate of 3.4% despite an initial drop in demand due to the coronavirus crisis and the sharp fall in the oil price. Demand for chemical products also fell in 2020, resulting in a drop of 8.9% compared to the previous year.

Sea-going vessels
In 2020, 13,655 seagoing vessels called at the port of Antwerp, a decrease of 5.1% compared to 2019. The gross tonnage of these ships fell by 5.2% to 394 million.

In 2020, the port of Antwerp proved that it is resilient even in difficult times. Despite the crisis, various pilot projects have made progress in the areas of green energy, digitalization and mobility. The corporate plan for the coming year builds on the 2018-2020 corporate plan, with sustainable growth, purposeful change and resilience as strategic priorities.

Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO Port of Antwerp: "We were caught in a storm in 2020, but we remained upright. The port even set another record in container throughput. As a result, we were able to limit the loss in the other segments and are able to present better figures than other ports. This once again confirms the importance of the container segment and the need to expand capacity. 2021 will be neither easy nor predictable, but we are stronger than before. Despite the crisis, in 2020 we are looking to the future more than ever: in terms of the energy transition, mobility and digitalization. I am convinced that our ambitious projects such as the Antwerp@C project to reduce CO₂, the hydrogen coalition, the 'Certified Pickup' project for the digital encryption of containers and the redesign of the NextGen District on the former Opel site will make a really big difference over the next 10 years."