News

Shortsea operator Samskip is introducing a new shortsea service between Antwerp and Hull as of 12 October this year. Antwerp will serve as the point of departure for quay-to-quay transport between the continent and the UK.

25 secondary school pupils became co-workers at Antwerp Port Authority for one day, on 18 October, as part of YOUCA Action Day (Youth for Change and Action). The amount of money that they earned – 50 euros per student – went to a project in the port city of Guayaquil in Ecuador aimed at improving the prospects of young girls in the most deprived areas of the city.

During the EPCA annual networking conference, the main get-together for petrochemical companies worldwide, Port of Antwerp laid on a lavish entertainment for the chemical giants attending, to thank them for their confidence in the port of Antwerp over the years. An extra boost was given by the announcement of a mega-investment by the petrochemical company Borealis, to build one of the largest PDH plants in the world. Can you too feel the chemistry in the port of Antwerp?

Today EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc launched the European network for drone demonstration projects.

The port of tomorrow is a smart port with a leading role for innovation and digitization. The chainPORT hackathon was held from 11 to 13 October for the first time simultaneously in the ports of Antwerp and Los Angeles.

Throughput continues to register growth in the Port of Antwerp. After record semi-annual figures, the total throughput after nine months stands at 177,026,550 tonnes – a sharp 6% increase compared with the same period last year.

The Austrian petrochemical company Borealis has announced that it is to build a new production plant on its existing site in Kallo, in the Antwerp port area.

Traffic flows between the Belgian port of Antwerp and the hinterland market in Hungary and Austria are increasing continuously. In order to meet the growing demand, the Antwerp Port Authority is promoting the expansion of hinterland connections, especially by rail. Two regular rail connections to Hungary have been established since 2015 and rail services to Austria have been expanded from one to currently three. At a port event held near Vienna on 27 September, leading representatives of the Antwerp port industry provided information on the further development of these transports with Austria and Hungary. 200 guests from both countries followed the invitation of the Antwerp Port Authority.

Samskip is launching a new shortsea service connecting Antwerp and Hull, in an expansion of its continent-UK multimodal network that also sees it debut at Belgium’s largest port.