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The seaborne cargo traffic in the port of [ds_preview]Ghent has registered a record with 29,1 mill. t in 2016. It was the best result for the Belgian port ever.

Therefore Ghent again sees its position as bulk port and as the country’s biggest dry bulk port confirmed. The port’s main trading partners are Canada, Russia and Brazil. In 2016, Ghent port registered a total waterborne cargo traffic of 51 mill. t or 9.8 % more than in 2015 (46.5 mill. t).

The 29.1 mill. t seaborne cargo traffic means an increase of 10.3% compared to 2015. Also, the assumed tonnages of 30 mill. t in 2020 are coming in sight. Furthermore with 3.7 mill. t, the port registers a record for the second year in a row for its conventional general cargo traffic (3.8 %). Slabs, sheet iron and sheet steel are the main goods here. The liquid bulk traffic achieves an unprecedented volume of 5.4 mill. t (+ 45.9 %) owing to the increase of naphtha.

RoRo traffic remains above the 2 mill. t mark for the third year on end and experiences the best year ever as for the number of lane metres (1.8 mill.). Also, a peak number of trailers were shipped by RoRo. On the other hand the port’s container traffic has almost halved to 0.1 mill t.

According to Port of Ghent the inland traffic also increased to 21.9 mill. t. With a 9 % growth, a good year has been ended after 2015 when inland shipping still dealt with a serious blow. As a result 2016 is the fourth best year ever and remains well above the set target figure of 20 mill. t the port stated. The main goods having been transported by inland shipping are coal, gas and diesel oil, sand and gravel.

More ships were handled in the port of Ghent

In 2016, 2,891 seagoing vessels have entered the port, these are 44 more than the year before (+ 1.6 %). The scale increase of the ships continues on its course, also in Ghent. In inland shipping, the number of vessels ended at 14,073, which is 649 units or almost 5 % more.