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The Port of Zeebrugge has handled 38 mill.[ds_preview] t of freight in 2016 – 1,3% less than the year before.

The roro sector grew to a volume of more than 14,35 mill. t, 6,7 % more than in 2015. Especially the number of vehicles that had been handled rose to nearly 2,78 mill. t. The sector saw a rise of 14.3% compared to the 2015 result. These confirms the import position of the port in the automotive shipping industry, Port of Zeebrugge stated. The countries showing the most growth in automotive traffic with the port of Zeebrugge are the United States (+47.5%), Sweden (+31.7%) and Spain (+25.4%).

According to the port the new year has already started with a few new automotive cargo flows. K-Line’s Europe Pacific service vessels coming from the Far East now offer two sailings a month from the port of Zeebrugge and KESS has started a new direct weekly service to Ireland.

However, the container traffic broke by about a third. These happened because of the loss of deepsea container services from the Far East due to the reshuffling of alliances.
The volume of dry bulk goods in Zeebrugge rose by 13.2 % and reached a total nearly 1,49 mill. t. Sand and grint imported for construction has made a large part of the dry bulk volume, but also the agri bulk has seen its volumes rise throughout the year the port informed.

Furthermore Zeebrugge covered new ground in 2016 and reached nearly 1,5 mill t ,in the break bulk sector (+27.5%). The liquid bulk volume has dropped by 10.7 % to about 6,03 mill. t. According to the Belgiums this was mainly because of the LNG volume that dropped by 20.6 % last year.

In terms of cruise shipping 2016 was a record year. The 142 cruise vessels moored at the port of Zeebrugge, brought a total of more than 743,000 passengers.