Vehicle throughput down in H1 at ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge

The port authority said there continued to be congestion at the ro-ro terminals because of carmakers stockpiling vehicles at the ports and a drop in demand for vehicles. Delays in vessels calls caused by them having to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid conflict in the Red Sea is also adding to the congestion. That has resulted in a drop in throughput for all transport materials by 13.2%, according to the port authority.

It reported that the lower throughput of second-hand cars in particular contributed to this, which were down by -45.8% followed by high and heavy equipment (-22.7%), trucks (-17.6%) and new cars (-9%).

However, throughput of unaccompanied cargo (excluding containers) carried on ro-ro vessels rose by 2.4% and the port authority said the decline in throughput to and from the United Kingdom (-4.6%) was more than compensated by an increase in throughput to and from Spain and Portugal (+35%), Scandinavia (+18%) and Ireland (+1.4%).

Container throughput has continues to recover across both quarters and this has led to a rise in total container throughput of 6.8% in tonnes and 4.1% in TEUs (6,665,000 TEUs), compared to the first half of 2023, according to the port authority.

Across all cargo categories, the total throughput of port of Antwerp-Bruges was 143.2m tonnes in the first six months of this year, an increase of 3% compared to the same period last year.

The combined port of Antwerp-Bruges is Europe’s busiest car-handling port and posted a +9% increase in the number of new finished vehicles processed in calendar year 2023, at 3.56m. That increase was because of multiple factors, including new carmakers targeting the European car market and the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) attracting dominant Chinese EV makers aiming products at Europe.

Read more about performance at continental Europe’s top vehicle-handling ports