With the exception of rolling stock traffic which resulted in Stable, in the first half of 2023 the other categories commodity of cargos enlivened by the port system of Antwerp-Zeebrugge recorded a significant decrease, decrease which was accentuated in the April-June period. Overall, in the first six months of this year, traffic is piled to 139,0 million tons, with a bending of the -5,5% on the same period of 2022. The greatest flow of loads, that of containers, it has marked a reduction of -5,9% being attested to 69.5 million tons with a movement of containers pairs to 6,4 million teu (- 5.2%). More marked the decrease in conventional goods to 5.3 million tons (-17,2%). In the bulk segment, liquid cargoes have totaled 45,8 million tons (- 3.2%) and the solid ones 7,6 million tons (- 12.9%). Rolling stock traffic unchanged with 10.9 million tons. The handling of new cars is has been pairs to over 1,8 million vehicles (+15.0%).

With regard to bulk, the Port Authority of the Belgian airport has specified that in the field of dry cargo, despite sharp declines in fertilizer and energy prices compared to the peaks following the start of the war in Ukraine, the fertilizer production - which is the most consistent Product group within dry bulk - is continued to decrease (-19%), also due to a limited replenishment of stocks. Coal production, which has peaked in 2022 as a result of the energy crisis and increased also in the first quarter of 2023, resulted in sharp decrease (-32.4%) after a mild winter and the presence of surpluses of coal in Europe. Sand and gravel traffic is increased by +16%. As regards liquid bulk cargoes, the traffic of liquid fuels has grown of +6.2% as a result mainly the significant increase in diesel/diesel volumes (+57%). Liquefied natural gas traffic showed a slight increase decrease of -1.4% compared to substantial volumes handled in the 2022. In addition, chemical trafficking decreased by -15.4% due to weak global demand and reduced local and European production. This last bending - it has specified the authority - is mainly due to energy prices, which are even higher in Europe than in other regions.

In the second quarter of 2023 alone, total traffic is State of about 70,3 million tons, with a decrease of the -6,3% on the corresponding period last year, of which 35.7 million tons of goods in container (- 5.2%), 2,8 million tons of goods conventional (- 15.2%), 5,5 million tons of rolling stock (+0.2%), 22,8 million tons of liquid bulk (- 6.5%) and 3.7 million tons of dry bulk (- 17.5%).

The Belgian harbour authority has highlighted that in the first semester of This year the port has increased by one percentage point the own market share of total containerized trade enlivened by ports on the coastal strip between Le Havre and Hamburg, which rose to 30.6% of the total.