In the second quarter of this year, thanks to the reversal of trend in dry bulk traffic and the rolling stock traffic, the decline in rolling stock has been further mitigated of goods handled in the port of Antwerp-Bruges during the period amounted to 68.4 million tonnes, with a decrease of -2% approximately on the April-June quarter of 2025. In particular, after five quarters of decline, dry bulk traffic recorded a growth of +8% rising to 3.6 million tons. The increase in rolling stock also continued, which had totalled 5.6 million tonnes (+5%). The largest volume of traffic, that of containerized cargo, has suffered a reduction of -2% having fallen to 37.9 million tons with a container handling which was equal to approximately 3.4 million TEUs (-2%). Liquid bulk cargo with 19.0 million tonnes (-4%) and conventional goods with 2.2 million tonnes million tons (-15%). The handling of new cars, equal to to 900 thousand vehicles, it grew by +5%.

The Port Authority of Antwerp-Bruges announced that In the first half of 2026, the Belgian port of call handled a total of 133.9 million tons of goods, with a drop of -2.4% on the first half of last year. In the solo container industry traffic was 74.2 million tons (-3.6%) with a container handling of 6.8 million TEUs (-1.5%). The port authority specified that the Full container exports decreased by -5.7% reflecting the weakening of exports by Western European economies, while the handling of empty containers has increased by +13.7% mainly due to the strong increase (+31%) of the export of empty containers. The Port Authority has specified that this was compounded by the impact of the strike of four days in March which, according to estimates, led to a reduction in traffic of 100 thousand TEUs, as well as the impact of the oil spill in the Deurganck which led to the temporary interruption of traffic in the area and which resulted in a further loss of traffic estimated at 85 thousand TEUs.

The half-yearly decrease in goods is more pronounced amounted to 4.2 million tonnes (-11.7%), with a decrease of -6.1% in imported data and a reduction in -19.6% of those in export, while rolling stock, with 11.0 million tons, grew by +5.9% driven by both imports (+4.6%) and exports (+6.9%). In the of liquid bulk cargo was handled 37.5 million tonnes (-1.9%) and in dry bulk 6.9 million tonnes tons (+2.3%), with a +3.9% in exports of dry bulk and a -0.3% of imports. The handling of new vehicles is was 1.8 million units (+7.2%).