ADR: the French abbreviation for “Accord européen relatif au transport international des marchandises Dangereuses par Route”, i.e. the European agreement for transport of dangerous materials by road.

Antwerp port area: the port areas and their dependencies located on the left and right banks of the Scheldt estuary on the territory of the city of Antwerp and the municipalities of Beveren and Zwijndrecht (Port Decree of 2 March 1999, art. 1 °5).

Antwerp Port Authority: owner and/or operator of the public and private domain within Antwerp port area, and grantor of concessions in this port area.

Backquay: an area located behind the quay.

Bilge water: oil-containing water from the bilges of machine room, bow, stern, cofferdams and side compartments in a ship or barge.

Bunkering activities: provisioning of ships with fuel such as fuel oil or diesel.

Capacity of the container terminal: number of containers per year that can be handled by the terminal. The units used are the TEU (the most commonly used), the tonne and the number of containers. The capacity depends on technical factors such as the length of the quay, the depth of the site and the length of time that containers remain within the terminal.

Cargo generating capacity: the location of the port of Antwerp deep inland, the immediate hinterland and the manufacturing companies in the immediate vicinity help to create additional goods traffic. This has a positive effect on port activities, generating a large flow of exports.

Cargo: the load carried by a ship. A distinction is made between bulk cargo (solid or liquid) and breakbulk cargo (also referred to as general cargo). A further distinction is made between conventional cargo on the one hand and container cargo on the other. Another category is ro/ro cargo.

Concession fee: fee charged to a concession-holder for making private use of a concession.

Concession period: the period for which a concession-holder is given permission to make use of part of the public or private domain in the port area, owned or managed by Antwerp Port Authority, for private purposes.

Concession: see “Domain concession.”

Concession-holder: the natural or artificial person to whom a concession is granted for carrying out activities that are directly or indirectly port-related.

Container: a standardised load unit, specially reinforced so that similar units can be stacked together, and which can be shipped either horizontally or vertically. The dimensions are also standardised, with 20 or 40 feet being the most common lengths. According to the ISO, a freight container is a means of transport whose main function is to facilitate the carriage of goods by one or more modes, without intermediate loading and unloading.

Conventional/breakbulk cargo: non-containerised, non-bulk cargo.

Cost-benefits analysis: study in which all the foreseeable advantages and disadvantages for society as a result of a proposed project or policy are weighed against one another by translating them into monetary terms. As such it covers not only financial aspects (cash income and expenditure) but also non-financial ones such as impact on the environment, safety, employment etc. It is therefore a planning tool for taking dissimilar effects into account.

Covered storage: an open, closed or partially closed covered storage area owned by Antwerp Port Authority and located on a quay area.

Deadweight tonnage (dwt): maximum permitted load that can be carried by a ship, expressed in tonnes (freight, passengers and fuel included).

Deepsea: refers to oceanic or intercontinental shipping, as opposed to shortsea shipping, which is restricted to the waters around Europe.

Depth alongside: vertical distance on a ship between the waterline and the bottom of the keel. In seaports, two depths are generally distinguished, namely Panamax (44’ 4”) and Capesize (59’).

Dock: enclosed body of water within a port where ships may enter, berth and be loaded/unloaded.

Domain concession: an administrative contract under which Antwerp Port Authority grants permission to a natural or artificial person to make use of its public or private domain for private use; the permission is essentially temporary and presupposes the payment of a fee

Dumb barge: a barge without its own means of propulsion, which has to be towed (or sometimes pushed). Often used in a string towed by a tug barge.

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS): a public document that describes the expected consequences for the environment that will be produced by a proposed activity and any alternatives that can reasonably considered, considered in relation to one another, in the most systematic and objective way possible.  An EIS is intended for information only; it is not a decision-making tool.

European banana: the theoretical ideal area covered by the large distribution centres in Europe. It extends from the South-East of England to the North-East of Spain, in between covering the whole of the Benelux, the East of France, the West of Germany and the North of Italy.

Feedering: carrying freight (frequently containers) from several smaller ports to one large one, where it is loaded onto a large vessel for deepsea (intercontinental) transport. Also refers to the reverse process,  where freight is transhipped from a large, deepsea vessel onto several smaller ones, for distribution to various local ports.

Freight category: general cargo or bulk cargo. In the case of general cargo, a distinction is made between container cargo, ro/ro cargo and conventional cargo. In the case of bulk cargo, a distinction is made between solid bulk and liquid bulk.

Freight: synonym for cargo. However, cargo tends to refer more specifically to materials on board a ship. When the materials are unloaded onto the quay they are no longer cargo but are still freight. The volume of materials handled by e.g. a port or terminal is expressed in terms of freight. The term cargo may also be used for materials carried by truck, rail or air, but in these cases the word freight is more commonly used.

Groupage: see LCL (Less than Container Load).

GRT: gross register tonnage. A measure of the ship’s capacity. The new, uniform method of determining the capacity was approved by the International Convention on the Tonnage Measurement of Ships in London on 23 June 1969. It is calculated according to a formula that takes into account the volume of the ship below the top deck, together with the enclosed spaces above it. The volume obtained in cubic metres is multiplied by a factor (the logarithm of the number of cubic metres). The number obtained is expressed without units (i.e. GRT of so much, without mentioning tonnes or cubic metres).

Hamburg - Le Havre range: series of nine large North European ports that serve essentially the same hinterland. They are (from North to South) Hamburg and Bremen in Germany, Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Antwerp, Ghent and Zeebrugge in Belgium, and Dunkirk and Le Havre in France.

Hub: a hub port is one that links up deepsea and shortsea shipping.

IMDG materials: any material mentioned in the “International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code drawn up by the IMO (International Maritime Organization, a UN body).

Intermediate Bulk Container (IBC): a type of container for transport and/or storage of solid or liquid bulk, which meets the following requirements: (a) the reservoir is held in a specially constructed box pallet to prevent damage in normal use; (b) it is designed to permit handling by mechanical equipment (crane or forklift) without danger; (c) it has a capacity of not more than 3 m³.

Intermodal platform: integrated logistics facility that combines two or more modes of transport, in which the modes have shared handling characteristics permitting freight to be transferred from one to the other within the platform on their journey from origin to destination.

ISPS Code: the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code came into force on 1 July 2004, prompted by the attacks of 11 September 2001 and the attacks on the Limburg and the USS Cole.

Land Use Structure Plan for Flanders: a scientifically-based vision for how we in Flanders can make best use of the scarce space available to us. It first came into force in 1997 as a framework for town and country planning and ran until 2007, when it was superseded by a new structure plan for the period until 2017.

Landlord port: a port authority which owns a number of sites on which concessions can be granted. The port authority itself does not carry out any port activities apart from administering the concessions; the port superstructure is operated by other parties (usually private sector). However, the port authority is able to give direction to port activities by suitable management of the concessions.

Landscape dike: a broad dike 12 m high, built up of land clearance spoil and covered in greenery.

LCL: Less than Container Load. In this case the carrier (shipping or transport company) accepts consignments whose volume is less than the capacity of one container. The carrier takes several such consignments from different customers to make up a container load. This activity is also known as groupage.

Liquid bulk: liquid materials carried in bulk, mainly oil and oil derivatives.

Lo/lo: lift-on/lift off. Vertical handling of cargo by means of cranes. Compare with ro/ro.

Logistics centre: centre for organising the flow of goods and services, along with the corresponding flows of information.

Maritime freight volume: total volume of sea freight (i.e. excluding barge freight) transhipped (loaded and unloaded) in a port in a given period. Seaports are frequently ranked on this basis.

Multimodal transport: combined transport of unitised freight by more than one transport mode, in which the goods themselves are not handled during transhipment, with the greater part of the route being covered by shortsea shipping, rail or barge transport and any road transport at either end being kept as short as possible.

Oosterweel link: road link between the left and right banks of the Scheldt via the Lange Wapper bridge and a tunnel underneath the Scheldt. The new toll tunnel will take greatly ease the traffic load on the Kennedy tunnel and significantly improve mobility within the port, not only for private cars but also for trucks.

PDI centre: Pre-Delivery and Inspection centre, where options are fitted on newly imported vehicles before they are delivered to the distributors. Also known as a Vehicle Logistics Centre.

Port area: any seaport within the Flemish Region which together with its dependencies forms a spatial, economic or functional whole (Port Decree of 2 March 1999, art. 1 °4).

Port dependency: part of the public or private domain for which a concession is granted; this may be a quay, a covered storage space, a warehouse, a building or part thereof, or a backquay.

Postponed manufacturing: activities subsequent to main manufacturing, such as finishing, final assembly, packaging or configuration according to the customer’s requirements, carried out just prior to distribution. Also known as “order-driven manufacturing.” Frequently the main manufacturing is carried out in low-wage countries.

Pusher barge: a type of dumb barge (without its own means of propulsion) specially designed or suitable for being pushed rather than towed.

Quay area: area between the water and the first public road behind the water.

Quickscan mobility: study that was carried out as part of the strategic planning process for the port of Antwerp. Its purpose was to determine the possibilities for port access in future, so as to guarantee continued mobility within the port area.

Regional Land Use Plan: plan defining the use to which sites or property is to be put and/or that determines the siting of structures in the various parcels of land. This type of plan will gradually replace regional plans and general special siting plans. There will be land use plans at regional, provincial and municipal level.

RMG: rail-mounted gantry crane, used to stack containers and to load/unload trucks.

Ro/ro: roll-on/roll-off. Wheeled cargo (e.g. cars, construction vehicles etc.) that can drive on and off the ship under its own power. As such it is a horizontal cargo handling method, as distinct from lo/lo (lift-on/lift-off) or vertical cargo handling.

Seaport: natural or artificial harbour on or near the seacoast where ships can moor and shelter, with facilities for loading and unloading cargo. More generally, a port accessible to large seagoing ships. Antwerp counts as a seaport although it is actually quite far inland on the river Scheldt.

Shortsea shipping: shipping between ports in European waters, namely the Baltic, the Atlantic seaboard, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. As such it is taken to include shipping between the continent of Europe and Iceland, the British Isles and all countries bordering the Mediterranean, not just the European ones.

Shuttle carriers are used to carry the containers between the quay and the stacking area.

Solid bulk: solid materials carried in bulk, such as ore, coal or grain.

Straddle carrier: Mobile lifting device used for loading containers onto or unloading them from a trailer, and carrying them to and from a stacking area. The vehicle drives over the trailer, straddling it on long legs, and lifts the container vertically.

Strategic planning: a continuous, systematic processes used to choose between future priorities, lay down the methods and procedures used to achieve these priorities, and define how success is to be measured.

TEN (Trans-European Network): transport links between EU member states, financed at least in part by the EU. For example, the Betuwe rail line.

Terminal: part of a terminal with one or more quays dedicated to transhipment of a particular type of freight. Examples include container terminals, ro/ro terminals, fruit terminals, bulk terminals etc.

TEU: twenty-foot equivalent unit. Unit for measuring the capacity of a container ship or container terminal. Also used in the statistics for measuring the volume of containers handled by a port. Most containers are indeed 20 feet long, although some may be 10 or 40 feet. 1 TEU corresponds to the load carried by a 20-foot container. This is usually taken to represent about 11 tonnes of freight.

Ton: use of the word ton is deprecated, as it is ambiguous. It may refer to an American ton (short ton) of 2000 lb, a British ton (long ton) of 2240 lb, or a metric tonne of 1000 kg. Tonne should always be used in technical, scientific and commercial contexts.

Tonne: a metric tonne, or 1000 kg.

Tracking/tracing: monitoring system used to follow the progress of consignments from origin to destination.

Transhipment: strictly speaking, this means transferring cargo from one ship to another, but it is frequently used also for transfers between ship and truck or rail car.

VLC: Vehicle Logistics Centre. See PDI centre.