Global News Early peak season boosts H1 volumes at Rotterdam, Antwerp-Bruges

Europe’s two largest ports saw rising freight volumes in the first half of the year with a recovery that began in the first three months and extended through the second quarter as an early peak season boosted container throughput.

The Dutch hub of Rotterdam reported a 2.2% increase in volume in the first half, at 6.8 million TEUs, while Belgian neighbor Antwerp-Bruges handled 6.6 million TEUs, up 4.1% year over year.

Whether that throughput trend will continue in the second half of 2024 was not yet clear and would depend on the wider recovery of European industry, according to Rotterdam Port Authority CEO Boudewijn Siemons.

“After a period of economic uncertainty, we see demand for raw materials and consumer products starting to increase, [leading] to growth in container throughput in the first half of the year,” Siemons said in a statement Thursday.

Rotterdam’s volume increase in the first half was a direct consequence of rising demand for consumer goods, according to the port’s statement. Demand was aided by the early peak season as importers ordered products earlier than usual due to longer transit times and fluctuating sailing schedules linked to the ongoing Red Sea diversions.

The container market was still adjusting to that new reality, Rotterdam noted. Longer sailing times via the Cape of Good Hope has introduced challenges in finding sufficient vessel capacity, while changes in sailing schedules, increased demand and bad weather in Asia caused congestion at ports in Asia, the Middle East and southern Europe.

While congestion in northwestern Europe has so far been limited, the Rotterdam statement said ship arrivals were more difficult to plan due to changes in schedules, adding that there has been a substantial increase in call sizes — the number of containers exchanged during a port call — since the start of the Red Sea attacks by Houthi militants. That has caused peak loads and container handling delays at terminals and hinterland connections. Antwerp-Bruges sees upwards trend The nearby port of Antwerp-Bruges in Belgium, Europe’s second-largest container hub behind Rotterdam, faced the same issues in the first six months of the year but has also maintained an upward trend in volume that began in the first quarter.

Antwerp-Bruges CEO Jacques Vandermeiren remained upbeat in the face of continuing geopolitical challenges, an uncertain macro-economic climate and the longer transits around southern Africa that have become the “new normal.”

“The past half-year has certainly not been without challenges,” Vandermeiren said in a statement this week. “But despite the ongoing geopolitical tensions [and] a still fragile economic climate ... we are continuing with positive figures once more, showing even stronger growth in the first quarter.”

Meanwhile, infrastructure development to expand the handling capabilities at Antwerp-Bruges has been ongoing. In the first quarter, a container ship with a draught of 16 meters entered the port’s Deurganck Dock for the first time without having to wait for the tide; four container vessels with that draught entered in the second quarter. The deeper draught has since been extended to other container terminals.

China is the largest contributor to throughput volumes at both Rotterdam and Antwerp-Bruges. The latest data from Container Trades Statistics (CTS) shows that containerized imports from China to North Europe through the first five months of the year were up 11.5% year over year at 3.4 million TEUs.