Port of Antwerp

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The port of Antwerp is a cape-size port in the heart of Europe. Antwerp is situated at the estuarium of the Scheldt. In this estuary ships of more than 100 000 tons sail 80 km inland. Due to the inland location, the port of Antwerp is situated more central in Europe than other North sea harbours. Within 1000 km around the port, 620 mil. people are situated. The port of Antwerp is connected to the hinterland with railroads, waterways and highways. In this way, the port of Antwerp is one of the most important maritime ports of Europe and one of the biggest of the world, with regular lines to 800 destinations oversea. With a total cargo turnover of 142.874.512 metric tonnes a year it is classified fourth, according to international maritime traffic listings in 2003. Only Rotterdam, Singapore and Shanghai have a larger overall turnover.

1 Port lay-out
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Port lay-out

The river Scheldt, flowing from south to north at this point, divides the port into two sides, the right bank and the left bank.^[1]

[edit] The right bank

With the opening of the Berendrecht Lock (1989), a crowning achievement in developing the right bank dock complex was obtained. With a length of 500 m between the lock gates and a width of 68 m, the Berendrecht lock is the largest lock in the world. This dock has a depth of 13.50 m, which makes the sill depth at mean high water equal to 17.75 m. Apart from the Lock, still further development of the right bank has been undertaken on the banks of the Scheldt outside the dock complex. Two large container terminals have been opened here. In 1990, the Europe terminal was operative, while secondly, the North Sea terminal became operative in 1997. The older areas of the port, such as the Bonaparte dock, are being modernised as needs dictate to make them suitable for modern cargo handling operations. Among this modernisation, an upgrade of the Amerika dock, the Albert dock and the third harbour dock are being done to make them accessible to Panamax ships, which have a draught of 42 feet (13 m). Other modernisation projects being undertaken is the Delwaide dock, which will soon be able to serve the latest generation of container vessels. The Southern part of the Delwaide dock, the MSC Home Terminal is a partnership between PSA Hesse-Noord Natie and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). Due to a total quay length of more than 2 km, several ships can be handled at the same time. By the end of 2006 the MSC Home Terminal will have an annual capacity of more than 3.6 million TEU.

[edit] The left bank

This side of the Scheldt is still in development. First, an area of 43.6 square kilometres is being developed. In this area, priority is given to the expansion of port and industry. In addition to this a northern expansion zone of roughly 14.4 square kilometres is planned. Central in the left bank is the Waasland canal. This canal connects the different docks to the river Scheldt. The main dock is the Vrasene Dock. This dock offers 4.5 km of berths, and the terminals that have been built around it are specialised in forest products, fruit juice concentrates, cars and plastic granulates. In 1996, the Verrebroek dock construction started. In this dock, the total quay length will be 5 km, of which 3.1 km is already available. The main purpose of the dock will be to hande non-containerised general cargo.

[edit] The Deurganck Dock

Since the existing container terminals on the right bank of the Scheldt have reached their maximum capacity and the container freight volume keeps increasing (in 2005 it expanded by 9.2% to 74.6 million tonnes or 6.5 million TEU), a new dock complex was constructed: the Deurganck dock^[2]. The first terminal in this dock was opened on July 6th, 2005. The full capacity of the dock is estimated at more than 8 to 9 million TEU. The Deurganck dock has a length of 2.5 km and consists of a total of 1,200,000 cubic metres of concrete. The construction of the Deurganck dock however is still an issue since the future of a local village, Doel, can not be guaranteed^[3]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

Flanders Institute for Logistics (VIL)

[edit] External links

http://www.portofantwerp.be/
http://home.scarlet.be/~mv970638/haven1.htm The history of the port

Belgian ports	edit
Sea ports: port of Antwerp \| port of Ghent \| port of Ostend \| port of Zeebrugge
Inland ports: port of Brussels \| port of Charleroi\| port of Liège