The port of Antwerp continued to show strong growth in container throughput during the first quarter despite experiencing the first effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Container throughput increased 9.5% year-on-year to 3.02 million TEU in a quarter in which the port said that impact of the coronavirus crisis had been “fairly limited”. It warned, however, that there would be a greater impact on its results in the second quarter.
The increase in unitary throughput was matched by volume results, which showed containerised cargo volumes up 9.4% to 35.9 million tonnes, contributing to a 4% increase in the port’s overall cargo throughput to 59.1 million tonnes.
The first quarter results showed an acceleration of the already strong growth in container traffic registered by the port in 2019, which saw unitary throughput increase 6.8% to 11.86 million TEU and volume throughput 6% to 138.75 million tonnes.
The port said that the growth in its container traffic had compensated for a decline in other traffic such as conventional breakbulk (-27.8%) and ro-ro (-20.3%), while liquid and dry bulks stayed relatively stable with increases of 0.7% and 1.2% respectively.
“There was a noticeable increase in pharmaceuticals and e-commerce goods,” it said, “and there was higher demand for long-life foodstuffs. With the exception of a slight decline in goods from the Far East (down 2.2%), all trading regions experienced strong growth.
“The impact of the crisis during the first quarter has remained fairly limited, but it will become apparent in the second quarter with cancelled departures, large sectors of industry such as the car industry in western Europe being shut down and changing patterns of consumer behaviour.”
Andrew Spurrier
European Correspondent
