The Port of Antwerp-Bruges today reported a 4.5% decline in traffic to 68.7 million tons in the first quarter of 2023 as economic uncertainty deepened in Europe and global carriers blanked sailings in response to lower import demand. The continuing war in Ukraine in also strongly reducing Russian-related shipments.
Operational challenges at container terminals and congestion have slowly declined since the third quarter of 2022, the port stated.
Economic uncertainty and inflation led to a global slowdown in demand for container shipping and the cancellation of sailings, particularly those from the Far East. Along with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which caused Russia-related traffic in the first three months of 2023 to be two-thirds lower than in the same period last year, this has resulted in a 6.6% drop in container throughput in tonnes and 5.7% in TEUs, compared to the first quarter of 2022.
Conventional general cargo throughput volumes are in line with the pre-COVID-19 period, but down 19.8% compared to a very strong first quarter in 2022, when a robust post-COVID-19 recovery resulted in high throughput figures. The slowing economy is accompanied by a decline in steel demand. This caused a 21.9% drop in throughput of steel, both in incoming and outgoing flows.
The dry bulk segment is down 7.3%. This is mainly due to the decline in fertilisers, the largest product group within dry bulk. Although the production of these has been increasing since March due to the fall in energy prices, overall throughput of fertilisers was still down 26.4% during the first quarter. On the other hand, the continued high demand for coal for power generation translated into throughput that was almost three times higher than in the same period last year. Throughput of sand and gravel also increased (+9.3%).
The liquid bulk segment posted growth of 0.5%. Besides an increase in the throughput of LNG (+23.3%), partly as an alternative to natural gas via pipelines from Russia, there was also growth in the throughput of diesel, fuel oil and energy gases. Chemical throughput is picking up compared to the last quarter of 2022, when high energy prices resulted in lower production rates or complete stoppages, but still remains 21.3% below the record of the first quarter of last year.
Roll-on/roll-off traffic is maintaining the status quo, but within the new-car segment there is a resurgence. The first quarter of 2023, saw 904,901 new cars shipped in and out, up 7.2% from 2022. Throughput of all transport equipment has grown by 4.3%, while unaccompanied cargo (excluding containers) is showing a decrease (-2.4%.) The share of these volumes related to the United Kingdom fell by 5.6% in the first quarter, while traffic to and from Ireland increased by 14.2%.
(Photo from Port of Antwerp-Bruges)
