Antwerp

The port of Antwerp has announced that it achieved a record freight volume in 2017, for the fifth straight year in a row.

Last year the port handled 223.6m tonnes of freight, an increase of 4.4 per cent compared with the previous year.

Practically all sectors turned in an excellent performance, including the container segement, where volume expanded by 4.3 per cent to 123m tonnes.

“Finishing the year with such strong growth figures gives us confidence for the future,' Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO of Antwerp Port Authority. 'The port companies too remain firmly convinced of the advantages of Antwerp and the strengths that it has to offer, witness the many investments that we were able to welcome in 2017.

'In 2018 we seek to build further on the momentum of the previous year,' he added. 'This means that we will take the entire world as the scale for our decisions, with maximum facilitation for our customers as the basis.”