January 27 - The port of Antwerp handled 199,012,082 tonnes of freight in 2014, a rise of 4.3 percent year-on-year over 2013.
The record growth was driven a 5.9 percent improvement in container volumes handled and a 5.6 percent surge in liquid bulk. However, dry bulk was down 6.1 percent year-on-year.
In total, 9,884,522 tonnes of conventional breakbulk was handled at the port of Antwerp during 2014, down 2 percent on the 2013 total. Ro-ro traffic also fell by 2 percent year-on-year to 4,470,346 tonnes. The total number of cars handed fell by 8.1 percent to 1,195,161 units.
In 2014 a total of 14,009 seagoing ships called at the port of Antwerp. This is 1.5 percent fewer than 2013. However, the overall gross tonnage rose by 1.7 percent to 335,275,551 gross tonnes. The number of ultra-large container ships (larger than 10,000 teu) calling at the gateway totaled 266 by the end of December 2014 - 68 more than in 2013.
