Freight News, Sea


Antwerp-Bruges looks on the bright side as box traffic falls

[ October 21, 2025   //   ]

A 2.4% fall in Antwerp-Bruges’ container traffic in the third quarter year on year has at least helped ease congestion, said the Belgian gateway in its latest statistics. The port said the slowdown was linked to the normalisation of container shipping alliances, which brought an end to the temporary overlap between calls in old and new alliances. This led to a clear reduction in congestion, with quicker turnarounds and smoother traffic to the hinterland. 
The first nine months saw modest growth in containers, with tonnage rising 1.1% and TEU up 1.6%. 
Antwerp-Bruges’ market share in the Hamburg–Le Havre range dropped 0.7 percentage points to 29.8% in the first half of 2025, largely because of lack of terminal capacity, a bottleneck that will be tackled through the ECA project (Extra Container Capacity Antwerp). Low container shipping schedule reliability and a series of strikes however continue to affect operational reliability.

Overall, in the first nine months of 2025, Port of Antwerp-Bruges handled 202.6 million tonnes of maritime goods, a decrease of 3.8% compared with the same period last year.

There was a recovery in steel imports, although exports remained under pressure from weaker shipments to the US and Mexico while, the European Commission unveiled stricter rules to curb foreign steel dumping. Liquid bulk declined 13.5%, hit by weaker petroleum derivatives exports to West Africa and persistent weakness in the European chemical sector. The decline in LNG traffic, resulting from the European ban on the transshipment of Russian gas, was partially offset by higher imports from the US.

Dry bulk (-8.9%) was primarily impacted by weaker fertiliser shipments, partly offset by increased imports from Russia and Morocco, the former ahead of the introduction of new EU duties.

 RoRo grew by 3.3%, supported by rising imports of new cars from China – despite European import duties introduced at the end of 2024 – as well as higher volumes of trucks and used vehicles. China has now become the leading country of origin for new car imports. 

US trade is still expanding, but import duties are curbing export growth, it added.

Shipments to and from the US –Port of Antwerp-Bruges’ second-largest trading partner – grew by 15% in the first nine months of 2025, primarily driven by containers and liquid bulk. However, since the summer, the impact of US import tariffs has become apparent: exports fell in the third quarter, particularly for steel, which declined by more than a third compared to the second quarter. 
Imports remained stable for the time being, supported by a sharp increase in liquid bulk and a threefold rise in LNG volumes, reinforcing Antwerp-Bruges’ role as a gateway for alternative energy flows replacing Russian gas. Container imports from the US also increased by 8%, although growth has slowed slightly since August. 

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